The Life Of Harry Potter Vol I
by GODSPEEDNIGHT
Summary: AU Harry is ditched on the streets as a child by his abusive uncle, he joins a gang and becomes a pickpocket. At age thirteen a group of wizards find Harry and take him to Hogwarts to start a new life as a wizard. will be H,Hr, Full summery inside
1. Mad Harry

**Disclaimer:**  I deny everything

**Summery:**  This story is definitely an AU.  It starts out with Harry being left on the streets by his abusive uncle when he was only four years old.  A street gang finds him and they take him in.  He grows up as a pickpocket on streets.  But at the age of thirteen, a group of wizards from a school called Hogwarts find him and convince him to come with them to be taught magic, as he should have done at the age of eleven.  He makes friends with three Gryffindors and begins to develop his magical skills.  But is all as well as it seems.  Is Harry mentally disturbed from all his suffering?  Is he a potential danger to the other students?  This story will hopefully become a trilogy that will follow Harry Potter from his childhood as he becomes the wizard he was destined to be.  Contains angst, drama, action, suspense, a little romance and eventually a bit of everything else.

**Warnings:  **Child abuse, Child Molesting, rape, torture, cursing, graphic violence and eventual more.

**Authors Note:  **Hello all, thank you for coming to my story.  I just want to say that I do not plan to abandon this story any time soon and have a full intention of finishing it off eventually, though that is a long way off.  Also, I am in high school so my updates may very in frequency so just bear with me. 

**CHAPTER ONE**

**Mad Harry**  
  
Harry Potter lay behind a dumpster unable to move. Although he was about four years old (though no one had ever told him exactly when his birthday was) he only looked to be about two or three due to his uncle starving him.  
  
Harry was in a particularly terrible state this morning. Ever since he could remember, his aunt and uncle had always abused him in many ways. But he could never remember a beating to be as bad as it was last night. Harry had gotten such a bad punishment the night before he was surprised to still be alive.  
  
It had all started when his Uncle had come home the night before. Harry could tell he was drunk. Apparently he had just lost his Job at his drill company. Harry new he would be best of to stay out of his way so when his uncle entered the kitchen, Harry tried to sneak out the back. But Vernon saw him first.  
  
**"WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING YOU LITTLE FUCK!!!"  
Harry was too terrified to move or speak. His uncle walked over to him and grabbed his head by his hair. He then, still holding his hair, picked him up and threw him face first into the edge of the counter, breaking his jaw. Harry new better than to scream out in agony. His Uncle then got down on his knees and started to hit the boy as he curled up into a ball.  
  
****"YOU FILTHY LITTLE SHIT, IT'S ALL YOUR FALT, IF I DIDN'T HAVE YOUR USELESS ASS TO WORY ABOUT I WOULD NEVER HAVE LOST MY JOB!!"** He then grabbed Harry by the foot and dragged him out of the kitchen and threw him into the garage.  
  
He then ordered Harry to take off his shirt and to get on his knees. Harry fearfully obeyed and began to tremble when he heard his uncle take of his belt. Harry would have gotten up and ran but because of the beating, he was too weak to even stand.  
  
When his uncle's belt began to tear into his back he fell to the ground, to weak to do anymore than flinch at every blow. After two minutes of this intense beating, Vernon stopped the lashing. The bloody pulp that was Harry gathered all his strength to lift his head a little to see what was happening. He could not see his uncle but he could hear him rummaging in a pile of junk behind him. Harry then tried to get up thinking it was over, but before he could react his uncle came back over and bashed the side of his face with the sharp blade of a shovel. Harry was thrown several feet across the room by the force of the blow. There was now a deep gash running down his cheek that would defiantly leave a scare in addition to his lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. The shovel had knocked Harry out and when he woke a few moments latter he heard his uncle drop the shovel.  
  
Harry was used to getting frequent violent beatings by his 'family' and was no stranger to the pain that had been a constant in his life for as long as he could remember. But he had never felt as much pain as he felt right now. Every inch of his body was covered in blood and bruises and he had several broken ribs as well as a broken collar-bone, leg, jaw and at least one broken arm.  
  
He was in so much pain that he barley noticed when his uncle grabbed him thankfully by his good leg and through him into the trunk of the car, slamming it shut. Once the trunk was closed, Harry fell unconscious once again.  
  
When Harry finally woke again it was in the dumpster he was currently sitting behind. He did not know how he had got there but assumed that his uncle had tossed him in there after his beating.  
  
Harry miraculously had a slight smile on his face as he woke up. He was smiling because of the dream he had while he was unconscious. It was the same dream he had had many times before. This was the dream in which he would see a young couple and there baby boy all sitting in a small, but comfortable room. The woman, who looked to be in her early twenties, would be sitting against her husband's chest rocking the black haired baby to sleep while the man, who had black hair identical to the baby's, would smile at them and stroke her long red hair. They looked so happy together and were exactly what a family should be. Harry wanted nothing more than to be in a family like this and was always happy when he would visit them in his dreams.  
  
It was a nice get away from his other nightmares, which had haunted him for his whole life. Most of these nightmares were of the horrifying nights when his drunken uncle would amuse himself by torturing Harry in as many creative ways as he could think of. On these nights his uncle would often tie Harry up and do horrible things to him like cut him with knives or electrocute him. Sometimes he would drag Harry into the bathroom where he would repeatedly dunk his head into the toilet making him choke on water and terrify him out of his wits.  
  
These frequent torturing was unbearable, but nothing was worse than the less frequent times when Vernon would be even more drunk than usual. On these occasions the man would tie the small child up after tearing of all his cloths and gagging him with a bloody rag. He would then lower his own pants rape his helpless nephew till he was satisfied. Although Harry was rarely molested by his uncle it was still far more terrifying than any of the other torture sessions he was surprised to have lived through. Whenever his uncle would finally stop he would drag the crying boy down the stairs and throw his naked body into the cupboard. Lying in the cupboard with the intense physical as well as emotional pain of being raped and torn by his uncle, Harry would cry to himself and wish for death to come and take him.  
  
These horrible nights were what haunted most of his sleeping hours. But luckily he had not had one the night before. Last night was one of the rare occasions were the only thing he dreamt about was the only beautiful thing he new, and he was happy because of it.  
  
Harry's smile left his face immediately as he came back to reality. He immediately began to panic as he thought over what had happened. Harry did not know where he was but he new that his uncle would not be back for him. Vernon had left him for dead and it was truly a miracle that the boy was still alive. Harry had no food and no money and was in desperate need of medical help. He was still too weak to do any more than climb out of the dumpster and was in to much pain to think properly. After only a few minutes of consciousness he fell asleep once more on the hard pavement.  
  
When Harry awoke again after having a less happy dream, he began to panic again as he came back to reality. He was already shook up from his dream witch was actually a nightmare of one of his more horrible beatings, and began to cry as he thought a bought his situation.  
  
He sat there felling sorry for himself for a good while. "Why's nobody love me" he said between his sobs. He often cried over this when he was alone in the dark of his cupboard. He had always longed for some form of affection that he had never known.  
  
Some time latter he heard his stomach growl. Hunger was defiantly no stranger to him. With his relatives, he rarely got more than one meal a day. But he was not just going to sit there until he died, so with much effort he pulled himself to his feet. After he took a few steps he noticed he was not in as bad of shape as he thought. He stopped to examine himself and realized that none of his bones were broken anymore. Harry had always been an incredibly fast healer, but this was way to fast, even for him. After a moment of pondering he decided that his broken bones had just been his imagination.  
  
He was still very weak and extremely sore, but he had developed a good pain tolerances over the years witch allowed him to keep moving. He slowly walked out of the alley, wincing with each step, and out into the main street.  
  
He figured he was some where in London, but had no idea where. His aunt and uncle rarely let him leave there house, let alone go to London. He decided to start walking until he figured out what to do.  
  
He limped his way down the street for a good while until the sun went down and he began to get sleepy. He went into another deserted alley and curled up into a ball behind some trash cans. As he went to sleep he optimistically thought, 'at least I didn't get beat today'.

**THREE YEARS LATER**Young Harry Potter woke up to the sound a gun shot, this was not an uncommon thing in the slums of London where he was currently living. He had been living there ever since his uncle had ditched him there over three years ago.  
  
He threw of the thick blanket he had been sleeping under and stood up. He looked over the other seven occupants of the room and realized that he was the first one up. He walked over to the window witch was almost to dirty to see out of and looked up to the sky. It was a cold grey morning but luckily did not look like it was going to rain. Smiling at the unlikely hood of rain, he turned around to go back to see if any one had woken up yet and realized that Ethan was just starting to rise.  
  
Ethan was the oldest in there gang. He was a bought sixteen and had been on the streets since he was only seven. He was tall and had long shaggy brown hair but was severely skinny and suffered from malnutrition along with everyone else on the streets. Ethan was mature beyond his years and was the unofficial leader of there gang which was called the foxes.  
  
Harry walked over towards the boy. Harry had always been very fond of Ethan and respected him more than all the others. Ethan was the one who had found Harry Lying in the street almost starved to death. That had been three days after his uncle had left him for dead. Ethan took Harry to his gang's residence, which had been an abandoned warehouse at the time, and with the help of the rest of the foxes, nursed Harry back to health. Once Harry had healed, Ethan took Harry under his wing. He began to teach Harry a bought surviving on the street. He taught him how to steel and how to be a good pickpocket. He also taught him how to fight and to protect himself from the other, more hostile gangs. Harry was a fast learner and, despite his age, quickly earned the respect of the other members of the gang.  
  
Seeing Harry, Ethan said "mornin' Raven". Raven was the name Harry had acquired after a few weeks on the street because of his long raven black hair. Only his closest friends new his real name, but they still usually called him Raven.  
  
Harry replied "mornin". Harry had always been a quiet boy and rarely talked unless he was talked to. Most people thought he was a bit mad, and he probably was. He also held a lot of wisdom for such a young age, and was as quick and cunning as any street kid needed to be. This is why he was such a successful thief.  
  
As Ethan stood and yawned Harry noticed that the other gang members were starting to rise.  
  
When Harry first joined the foxes there where nine other members. Mark, Charley, Even, Maggie, Sarah, Jack, Cat, Nicky and Ethan. Ethan was the oldest at age 13. After him came Maggie who was only three months younger than Evan. Maggie was the closest thing to a mother Harry had ever known. She was always there for Harry and although she was still young, she loved Harry like a Mother would. After Maggie, came Mark and Charley, who were twins at age twelve. The next youngest in the group was Cat, who was ten, and then Nicky and Evan, who were both ten. Then there was Jack and Sarah who were both about the same age as Harry. Jack and Sarah where Harry's best Friends. The three of them where practically insuperable, and always watched each others back's. It was good to have friends like these because they were usually the only people you could trust on the streets.  
  
Now there were only eight members of the gang, including Harry. They had lost four members and gained two. Even and Cat had both been killed in battles with rival gangs and Nicky had been arrested. But worst of all was the death Maggie.  
  
One night, only a few months ago, Maggie did not return to the warehouse like she normally did. The gang had gone out looking for her the next day to try and find out what had happened, but did not expect to find her the way that they did. The foxes had found her body lying on the floor of a nearby abandoned building with all her clothes torn off. Her naked body was covered in blood and bruises. Whoever had done this had tied her up gagged her with a sock. They then beat and raped her much like Vernon had once done to Harry, and left her to die. It was the most horrifying sight of Harry's gruesome life.  
  
Maggie's death had hit Harry very hard. No one had ever loved him like she had and when Harry had seen her rotting corps lying naked in a bloody heap with an expression of pure terror on her bruised face, he had never been able to forget it. It became the memory that would haunt his dreams more than any other and make him the quiet, sad, and slightly mad boy he was now.  
  
The two new members of the gang were Mel and Zack. Zack was only six and even quieter than Harry. Mel, on the other hand was eight. Harry didn't like Mel at all, and neither did most of the others, especially Ethan. Mel had come from one of the other city gangs after they kicked him out. He always tried to be in charge and was way too cocky for his own good. He never really held his weight in the gang and always took more than he gave. Mel also tried to be superior to Harry just because he was older, but Harry was much more skilful in surviving on the streets than him.  
  
As they rose Harry and Ethan greeted them. By the time all of them were up the sun had completely risen. Harry went and sat down next to Jack and Sarah to plan there day of pick pocketing.  
  
This was how it would continue for another three years. Harry and his gang would continue to steal just enough to get by and not have too much trouble. They never stole unless it was necessary and they never fought with other gangs unless they were defending there territory, which continued to be there abandoned warehouse, or defending themselves on the street. That is what Harry liked about the foxes. They weren't barbaric like the other gangs of the street, who would wage wars on other gangs. Some gangs even made it mandatory that you kill someone from another gang before they would let you in. Harry's gang stayed away from these gangs as much as possible.**THREE YEARS LATER****Around Harry's six year anniversary of living on the streets, the gang's luck changed. The downfall of the foxes began one day when Jack had disappeared. The other members of the gang had spent days looking for him but never found him or new what had happened to him. About a month latter they had lost Mark and Charley in a very brutal gang fight. Now there gang was dangerously close to extinction and it only got worse when Sarah had died later that winter. It had been a very nasty winter and Sarah had let her feet get too cold. She died of frost bit before she new what happened. Her death and Jack's disappearance had hit Harry almost as hard as Maggie's death had. They were the last two people that he could call his family. After all he had been through and all he had lost, he was now on the verge of madness. Mostly because of his friends' fate but also because of the nightmares. No mater how hard he tried he had never been able to stop the nightly ordeal seeing his last memory of his beloved 'mother', Maggie.  
  
The foxes were now narrowed down to four. Zack, Mel, Ethan, and a slightly mad, Harry.  
  
The end of the foxes was brought a bought that February. There had been a blizzard the week before and everything was covered in snow. Harry and his gang had made and sort of alliance with another group of orphans who called themselves the wolves a few months before when Harry had rescued one of there number from another gang. The wolves were having trouble with another gang and Harry's gang had been living with the Wolfs so they could help fight if the hostile gang would attacked. And attack they did.  
  
One February the two gangs had walked outside to find themselves surrounded by about twenty-five dirty looking people. Even with the help of the foxes, the defenders were still outnumbered by at least ten. After fifteen minutes, the defenders had been reduced by about half. Harry, Zack and Ethan were easily three of the best fighters there, Zack was not as well known but everyone on the streets knew that Raven and Ethan were two of the best fighters on the streets. Especially Raven, who was said to be a bit mad.  
  
Mel on the other hand was a coward. Harry had not seen him since the beginning of the battle and was a little worried, despite his dislike for him. He spun around to search for Mel That was when he saw Zack lying on the ground dead, his dark red blood staining the few spots of snow around him that were not already covered in blood. Harry was so angry he fell to his knees and screamed. His anger was increased ten fold when he saw Ethan get stabbed in the back by someone. As Ethan died, Harry stood and went over to his Murderer to get revenge. He was shocked to see who it was.  
  
Harry and Mel locked eyes. Harry's normally emotionless eyes were filed with murderous rage that no one had ever seen. This scared Mel so bad he nearly wet himself. Although Mel would never admit it, he new that he didn't stand a chance against Harry. He also new that Harry was slightly insane and would not let him get away with what he had done. Harry began to attack Mel with his knife and Mel tried with all his might to defend himself, but it was no use. The fight had not lasted ten seconds before Harry had slashed open Mel's throat.  
  
After Mel was dead, Harry turned back to the battle. The few wolves that were left were scattering. They had lost the Battle.  
  
Harry then took of into the city. He once again, had no one. All his friends were now gone.  
  
Harry never did join another gang. He mainly just lived alone and continued to be a pickpocket. He still had a lot of enemies so he occasionally got into fights with people. Most of these people were people who had heard of his reputation of being such a good fighter and wanted to be known as the one who had killed Raven.  
  
His only companion was his dog, who he had named Mag after the woman he could have called his mother. Mag had found Harry sleeping in an alley and Harry had taken her in. Harry figured she was some kind of Malamute, defiantly not native. She had black and white fir and was a medium sized dog. Although Mag was as dirty as every thing else thrown out on the street, she was a beautiful dog. Mag was also extremely loyal to Harry and very obedient. He and Mag always looked out for each other. Mag even fought with Harry whenever someone would try to mug him.  
  
Mag had found Harry in the beginning of the summer after the fateful battle in which Harry had lost his last two friends.  
  
Harry and Mag had found an old factory to live in. The factory suited Harry perfectly. It was big, vacant, and quiet.  
  
From there on Harry's life had become much simpler.**

**  
AUGUST 5, 1991**

**HOGWARTS CASTLE**

Professor Dumbledore sat in his office reading a letter from the minister asking for his advice. He had been mildly amused at the man's lack of confidence.  
  
His ears perked up as he heard loud thundering footsteps coming up the stairs. When the foot steps stopped there was an urgent sounding nock on the door that nearly shook the whole castle.  
  
"Come in Hagrid" Dumbledore said calmly.  
  
A Gigantic man burst through the door with an urgent look on his face. "Professor, I think there's some thin' wrong, I've been tryin' to contact Harry all week but I can'. He aint at his Aunt and Uncles, that's fer sure".  
  
As he said this the twinkle in the old mans eyes was extinguished. "Oh dear" he said to himself. After thinking for a minute He looked up to Hagrid and said "Thank you Hagrid. Could you please ask professor Snape to bring me his strongest truth potion? I need to make a visit to the Dursley's."  
  
A few hours latter Dumbledore walked into the great hall, looking the sadist he had looked in nearly ten years. The other teachers residing at the castle who had been eating dinner at the time were all very worried to see the usually cheerful man looking so sad.  
  
"What's wrong professor?", one of the teachers asked.  
  
Dumbledore looked up at all of them and said "I've just been to visit young mister Potter's home and acquired some terrible news."  
  
The room was silent for a moment until Professor McGonagall said "what is it Albus?"  
  
Dumbledore took his seat at the head of the table and said in a tired voice "He wasn't there".  
  
"What, why not, where is he?"  
  
"I don't know".  
  
Every one was silent for another few minutes before Dumbledore continued "For those of you who do not know, when Lily and James were killed Lily gave here life for Harry, her love for him was so strong that it gave Harry protection that cold not be broken by and dark magic. This is what saved Harry's life. In order to preserve this protection, I sent Harry to live with his only blood relative, His aunt Petunia. This would prove to be the biggest mistake of my life." He paused for a few moments and then continued, "When I arrived at the Dursley's they denied ever knowing the boy, I was not satisfied so I gave them a truth potion. Under the Influence of the potion they told me some very terrible things." He had to regroup before he could continued again. "They told me that as soon as he got there they had forced him to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs, and they told me about how they would starve him for long periods of time. They also confessed to brutally beating him nearly every day for his entire life. It was also reveled that his uncle Vernon would occasionally get really drunk, tie Harry up and torture the poor boy in ways I would not expect from anyone other than Voldemort. I was told that he would cut Harry with knives, or electrocute him all for his own enjoyment. He even... molested Harry on several occasions. And worst of all they told me that when Harry was five, his uncle beat him to within an inch of his life with a shovel and left him for dead behind a dumpster in London."  
  
Every one in the room (with the exception of Snape) was now crying. Dumbledore realized that they all thought he was dead. But Dumbledore knew that Harry was alive somewhere. And that sooner or later they would find him. Once his accidental magic got strong enough it would be picked up. Now he just needed to wait and hope Harry was alright.  
  
(A/N) Thank you for reading the first chapter of my story. Please review and feel free to criticize.


	2. Raven, or Harry

**CHAPTER TWO**

**Raven or Harry **

**August 22, 1993 LONDON**  
  
Sirius Black was dead tired as he made his way through the streets of London. Having escaped from Azkaban only a few months before, he had to be very cautious in order to preserve his freedom. Sirius had not changed out of his dog form since he escaped and had been forced to do all of his traveling on foot. This was taking a long time.  
  
After his escape his first objective was to finally see his Godson. He had not seen him in twelve years and was determined to make sure that he was alright. He new that Dumbledore had taken him to his aunt and uncle's after Voldemort had killed Lily and James. So that is where he went. He did not expect to arrive at the Dursley's and not be able to find any sign that Harry had ever lived there, even in his dog form. This was when Sirius decided to go to Hogwarts, thinking that Harry would be there in a few days anyway. There he would also be able to get his revenge on the traitor that had orphaned his godson.  
  
Since he did not know where exactly Hogwarts was he decided that he would need to go to platform nine and three-quarters and follow the tracks to his destination. This was why he was in London. He new kings-cross station was only another fifteen miles away. But he was much too tired to make the journey and decided to get some sleep and go to Kings-cross in the morning. He started to walk into the alley to find a good spot to sleep when he smelt something oddly familiar.  
  
In his dog form, his senses were incredibly sharp. This was how he could tell that Harry was not living at the Dursley's. His curiosity soon got the better of him so he turned around and began walking back down the side walk, following the smell that he still could not put his finger on. When he arrived at the source of the smell he was a bit confused. The source of the smell was a boy of about thirteen who looked as if he had spent his whole life on the streets. The boy appeared to be all alone except for a black and white furred dog that was walking closely at his side. Sirius could also smell that the boy was a little sick. Sirius did feel sorry for the boy but could not figure out why he smelt familiar to him. 'I'm glad Harry had plenty of people to care fore him and would never have ended up living on the streets like this poor child' Sirius thought to him self. Thinking about Harry stirred something in his mind. 'No' he thought as it dawned on him where he remembered the smell from. 'No, no it can't be, this is impossible, I must be mistaken' Sirius said to himself with just a hint of panic.  
  
Just then the boy turned around and looked over at Sirius. When Sirius saw the boys face all his beliefs that this was not Harry were crushed. He nearly yelped when he saw the boys face. The boy had a scar right above his left eye brow as well as a nasty looking one running down his cheek. But the scar that had shocked Sirius the most was the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. This was the same scar Harry had the last time Sirius had seen him. Sirius now knew this was without a doubt that this street kid was Harry, and it brought tears to his eyes.  
  
Sirius got another surprise when he realized that Harry had walked over to him and began scratching behind his ears. Harry said to Sirius "el'o der' little fella, what 'er ya do' in out 'ere all alone?" Sirius did not know how to react; he was still too shocked and to confused to think strait. He quickly snapped out of it though as Harry put his hand out to Sirius to sniff. Sirius then decided that he would from then on; he would fore fill his Godfather duties as best he could by protecting Harry to the beast of his abilities. His revenge could wait.  
  
Making up his mind that he would stay with Harry, Sirius licked Harry's hand affectionately. This seemed to satisfy Harry as he smiled and said "well we v' got t' go now, you can come along if ye wan'." Harry then walked away and smiled when he realized Sirius was following. After a few minutes of walking Harry turned to Sirius and said "ya' look a bi' hungry, why don we go ge' sum food." Then they proceeded to walk down the road.  
  
"Was da' mat'er with you" Harry said as he noticed Mag acting very cautious around Sirius. She wasn't growling as she would have been if she sensed that Sirius was a hostile, but she did seem to be acting very cautious around the other dog. Harry just shrugged and proceeded down the street.  
  
As they continued down the street Sirius noticed that Harry kept lightly bumping into people along the way. He did not figure out why until Harry led the two dogs behind a dumpster and took out four or five wallets from his pockets. Sirius was a little disappointed at first to see that Harry was a pickpocket but he only blamed himself. 'At least he can take care of himself' Sirius thought optimistically. Harry then said "this ot'ta last us a wile. Harry then told the two dogs to what there while he ran across the street to a grocery store. When Harry came back it was with two cans of dog food, which he put in his back pack.  
  
The three of them then continued to walk into the back of the alley which opened up into another alley. Harry continued to lead them through the maze of streets and alleys until they came to a gigantic factory with a large sign on the gate that said 'DANGER KEEP OUT'. They walked over to a small whole in the fence and climbed threw. They walked over to one of the side doors of the factory with a large padlock on it. Harry pulled out a key and opened the door and they walked through Harry led them through a factory and into a room that looked like it used to be a lounge for the workers.  
  
Harry walked over to a pile of rages that was his bed and set his pack down. He took out a can opener the cans of dog food. He then opened the cans and dumped them out onto tree different pieces of wood. He gave one of the make-shift plates to Mag and the other to Sirius, and kept one for himself. Sirius was overwhelmed with sadness again as he watched his homeless godson devour the dog food with a grateful smile on his face.  
  
After they had eaten they all went to sleep curled up together to keep warm on the cold summer night.  
  
After that night Sirius stayed with Harry. He would help Harry out as best he could. Mag never did trust him a hundred percent but after a while she accepted him. Sirius got nervous sometimes when Harry would give him curious looks. It was as if the boy suspected something of him. Sirius new after a short time with Harry that he was incredibly smart and cunning. He would not put it past the boy to not entirely believe his disguise.  
  
Harry possessed mainly street smarts and wit but Sirius new that he had the potential to be incredibly book smart as well. He wished that Harry could have gone to Hogwarts to learn magic and have a home. Sirius considered himself lucky that he had even found Harry.  
  
**JANUARY 1, 1994**  
  
Harry, Sirius (who Harry had named Jack), and Mag where walking down the cold streets of London side by side. Harry suddenly let out a very sickly cough that made Sirius flinch. Harry had fallen ill and whenever he coughed it broke Sirius' heart.  
  
They were performing there normal routine where they would basically roam the streets looking for unwanted food and if necessary, steel a wallet or two. They had not found any food in days so Harry was looking for an easy pocket to pick. They where in a very rough part of town at the moment, between there factory and the main street where they could usually find some food or a nice fat wallet.  
  
It was then that Harry saw what he was looking for. A man was walking towards him looking around nervously. The man was wearing a nice suit and had a brief case in his hand. Harry could not figure out what the man was doing here, He clearly didn't belong.  
  
Harry walked past him and only lightly brushed against the man. There was no way that the man new any thing was wrong. Harry kept walking and disappeared out of sight. Although Sirius did not like the idea that his godson was a pickpocket, he was always amazed and even a little proud at how good of a thief Harry was. He had tried many times, but even with his sharp dog eyes, he could not see Harry's hands go any where near the victims pocket and yet he never came out empty handed.  
  
Harry led them into and alley where he sat down and took out the money and threw the wallet away. Sirius then heard something coming. As Harry stood up he looked at his companions, both dogs were tense and giving of low growls. Harry soon found out why.  
  
Into the alley came a group of about fifteen people all dressed in rags similar to Harry's. Harry cursed under his breath; this was the same gang that the foxes and the wolves had battled almost three years ago.  
  
A small boy a few inches shorter than Harry was the first to speak, "what've we got 'er, someone trespassing on our territory I see". Harry recognized this boy, he reminded Harry of Mel. Harry snarled at the boy who shrunk in fear but regained his composure when he remembered that it was fifteen to one. He got another fearful look when the two dogs flanking Harry snarled at him with murderous rage.  
  
Then a girl in the crowd spoke up, "I know him, that's Raven, he used to be in the foxes". Some of the people looked a little shocked when they heard this. It was only the fact that they out numbered him greatly that kept most of them from running in fear. Everyone had heard of Raven and it was common knowledge that you'd have to be even crazier than he is to fight him.  
  
Another one of the boys then said "well I'd say it's abou' time we put 'im in his place." Harry's eyes were darting around looking for an escape; this gang was not at all fond of him. He had cost them several of there members in the last battle of the foxes and they had not forgotten. Harry calmly said in a dangerous voice "I aint looking fer no trouble, you jus' leave me da fuck alone an' I'll clear out." The boy just laughed and said "I don t'ink so Raven, you is gona pay for what you an' your foxes done." Harry then knew that they would not leave him till he was dead. The gang started to close in on him drawing knives as well as bats, crowbars and other make-shift clubs.  
  
Harry acted so fast you could hardly see any movement. He swiftly grabbed a knife from his boot and threw it at one of the boys blocking his way to the street. As people began to charge at him he drew a switch blade from his pocket and ran at the street cutting several the people who remained in his way. He did this so quickly he hardly even had to slow down as he slashed threw the mob of people. Sirius was shock as he saw Harry battle through the Mob. He had seen Harry get into several minor fights before but he had never seen anyone fight as fast as Harry was now fighting. He looked at Mag who was helping Harry fight with her teeth and immediately began to do the same.  
  
Harry grabbed his boot knife out of the throat of its target as he and the dogs ran past him and took of into the street with the angry gang following closely behind. They then ran down another alley that Harry knew led into the back a large warehouse that he cold easily loose them in.  
  
When he got to the door that led to the warehouse he cursed violently when he realized it was locked, the murderous gang was right on there heals. Harry wasted no time as he took a thin wire out of his back pocket and began to pick the lock with it. He began to get angry when he realized that there was know way he could pick the lock in time. Suddenly he heard the lock click open. "Holy Shit" he said in disbelief. He did not have time to ponder this as he saw the gang now coming around the corner. Harry threw open the door and they scrambled through it. He slammed the door behind them and locked the door.  
  
An Hour latter they made it to the factory. They all curled up tired and hungry not having gotten any food that day and went to sleep.  
  
**HOGWARTS CASTLE**  
  
It was New Years day and all the students had just gotten back from there holidays and were gathering around for lunch. Albus Dumbledore sat at the head table having a chat with Jeff Granger.  
  
At the beginning of the year he had hired Mr. and Mrs. Granger to teach muggle studies and he had never regretted it. A lot of people at the ministry had disagreed with this but whenever they said anything he would just reply "who could better teach us about muggles than two muggles". He smiled when he saw how happy the Grangers were here. They seemed to get along with everyone and could now be with there daughter Hermione during the school year. It was things like this that truly made the man proud.  
  
His conversation was interrupted by an owl landing right in front of him. He smiled at the bird as he took the letter of his leg and offered him some bread. He looked at the letter and immediately got incredibly tense as he saw who it was from. It was from The Improper use of Magic office. The last time he had had anything to do with that branch was when he had asked his friend who was the head of that department to contact him immediately if they ever got wind of anything to do with Harry Potter. He had been waiting for this letter to come for the last three and a half years.  
  
As he read the letter he got an even wider than usual smile on his face. He stood up and looked down the staff table and spoke in a cheerful voice that only those at the Head table could hear "Attention Professors, I have Just received some extremely wonderful news, please report to my office after lunch." He then practically skipped out of the hall smiling at every one he saw. The Professors all just stared at him and when he was gone, they returned to there meals.  
  
After they had eaten they all walked up to the Headmasters office. When they got there they all took seats around his desk and he began to speak. "Good afternoon my dear friends, as I have already told you, I have some wonderful news." The teachers all looked at him expectantly and he continued "As you all know, Harry Potter has been missing from our world for nearly thirteen years; most have concluded that he is dead." All the teachers immediately got very anxious as the Headmaster spoke of this. Some of them had been deeply affected when they had heard about Harry over three years ago and never got completely over it. Even the Grangers, who had heard the whole story from the other teaches, were on the edge of there seat. Albus then continued "I have just received a long awaited letter from the improper use of magic office confirming that he is not only alive, but also that he performed an accidental unlocking spell in London at twelve-thirty today."  
  
As Albus said this all of the teachers began cheering in joy. Most were crying in happiness and hugging each other. Hagrid and McGonagall were especially hysterical as they began to sob into each others shoulders. Albus smiled as he saw there reaction. After a few minutes they all began to calm down, but they still had smiles on there faces. "I plan on going to get him as soon as possible, the only problem is we do not know how far away he is from the spot that he cast the spell, Professor Flitwick, I ask that you come along to help me with a tracking charm" Flitwick nodded and said "Of course!!" in an excited squeak. Dumbledore then continued anyone else who would like to come and help is welcome. Am I correct in assuming that you would not miss this for your life Remus?" The werewolf nodded, still in a little shock that Harry was alive. It had crushed him when Albus had told him the news about Harry three years ago.  
  
"Perhaps we should go, we do know our way around the non-magical world" Mr. Granger stated. "Excellent idea Jeff, you and Lisa will defiantly be useful." Dumbledore paused for a moment to think and continued "Why don't you ask Hermione and her friends to also accompany us, perhaps it would make the situation more believable if he were to see some wizards and witches his own age, he still knows nothing of our world."  
  
Hermione Granger and her two best friends Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley were grinning with excitement. They had just been asked to go to London with some of there teachers to retrieve the long lost Harry Potter. It was two o'clock and the three of them were standing in the Headmasters office ready to take a portkey to London with The Grangers and Professors Lupin, Flitwick, McGonagall, Hagrid and Dumbledore. The had been told that they were going to help search for Harry and convince him he is a wizard.  
  
After they touched the portkey and slammed into the ground the two girls were almost dragged down onto the pavement but were caught by Lupin. When they said thank you he mutely nodded, too nervous to trust his voice.  
  
The then got a good look at were they were. They were in a filthy alley with trash cans spilt all over the place. There was a drunk man sleeping behind a trash can who looked like he had not had a bath in about a year and the whole place smelt to high heaven. They were obviously in a very bad neighborhood. None of them looked like they had been expecting this. This was definitely not the kind of place any kid should have to be for any reason.  
  
Hermione, Ginny, and Neville were looking very confused. Neville even looked a bit frightened. The three of them had not been told anything of Harry's past after he defeated Voldemort and were expecting him to be in an orphanage or at a foster home somewhere.  
  
The headmaster then said to himself in a sad tone, "I was afraid of this". Hermione, not liking being confused, asked the Headmaster "Sir why would Harry be in a place like this, he doesn't live around here does he". The Headmaster said in the same tired voice "I don't know child, I certainly hope not."  
  
Hermione then thought of something else and asked, "How did he become missing in the first place anyway sir". Albus sighed and said "well child, perhaps I should tell you three the full tail of Harry Potter before we begin". He then began to tell the story to the three of them, he told them about leaving Harry with the Dursley's, the abuse of the Dursley, and finally he told them of Harry's final beating when he was only four and about being left for dead in a dumpster. When he had finished telling the graphic story, Neville was shacking and the girls were both crying quietly. "How could someone do that to a four year old" Hermione said in disbelief. They soon controlled themselves and began the search.  
  
Professor Flitwick began to cast a charm that would show all of Harry footprints as a glowing pink outline and Albus cast a spell that would only make it visible to them. The group was once again confused as they saw that Harry's foot prints leading to the door were spaced wide apart as if he had been sprinting. They unlocked the door by magic and noticed that the foot steps got normal inside the door. They then began there task of finding Harry.  
  
The trail had been an odd one. They had suspected Harry to have traveled on the main streets and were surprised when they learned that he preferred to use the back streets and alleys, he even cut through buildings occasionally. They quickly became lost because of the maze of alleys they were venturing into.  
  
It was completely dark when they finally came to and old abandoned factory of some sort. They followed the foot prints over to the side where they magically unlocked a door and nervously went in.  
  
Harry suddenly awoke. He had gotten a few hours of sleep at least he figured as it was now dark, but he was not fully rested. Something else had woken him but he did not know what. He looked over at Jack and Mag who had both started to rise, sensing a disturbance.  
  
Sirius was currently testing the air trying to smell something out of the ordinary. His nose twitched as he smelled a few humans approaching. The odd thing was that he recognized one of them. It took him a moment to pinpoint the smell, but when he did his heart nearly stopped. He had smelled that man many times since they were kids. It was the smell of he greatest living friend, Remus Lupin. At first he was terrified. Remus still thought Sirius was a traitor and he knew he was an Animagus. If he were to be seen by him he would be given the kiss within the hour. Sirius then got a smile on his face as he realized why they must be here, they were here for Harry.  
  
He had wanted nothing more than for Harry to be able to go to Hogwarts and Sirius would have gladly given his soul for Harry to have that opportunity. He had to leave Harry now.  
  
Sirius walked over to Harry who looked at him and said in a whisper, "whas' da' mat'er Jack". Sirius, with a heavy heart, gave Harry an apologetic look as if to say good bye. Sirius did not expect Harry to understand but was once again surprised when his godson got a look on his face as if he understood exactly what he was trying to say. Sirius licked Harry's face with love and Harry hugged Sirius harder than he had ever hugged anyone since Maggie had died. Sirius then turned and bound out of the room.  
  
Harry watched as Sirius ran away. He was a little confused but at the same time, for a reason unknown to him, he felt that he understood that Jack needed to leave. He could not figure out how he knew this but he did.  
  
Harry snapped into reality as he heard Mag's low growl. He listened with all his concentration to try and hear what his dog did. A moment later he heard it there was several sets of footsteps heading his way. Harry immediately thought it was the gang that he had encountered earlier that day. He had injured and possibly killed several of there number earlier that day and he was sure that they would want revenge. 'Damn, how could they have found me, no one knows I live here' he thought as he heard them getting closer. He put his finger to his lips and the dog immediately stopped growling. The two of them quickly slipped of into the shadows and hid at a safe distance to evaluate the intruders.  
  
Harry was expecting an angry gang to walk through the door ready to beat what they found to death. He received quite a shock when a group of people who appeared to be wearing cloaks cautiously crept into the room. Three of them looked to be about his age. One of them was shorter than him but looked to be many years older. There were two average sized men, one old man with a long white beard, and two women, one older than the other. But the oddest of all was bushy haired man that was twice the size of most other men and had to crouch to fit through the entrance to the room. They were a strange bunch indeed. But they did not appear to be hostile.  
  
Harry watched as they walked over to the pile of rags that was his bed. The short man suddenly Squeaked "This room is filled with his prints, I fear this must be his home." All the others were horrified as they saw the small camp that was Harry's home. All it was is a pile of rages, an old blanket, Harry's back pack, a few shoes, some various pieces of clothing, a small wooden box, that Harry kept some of Maggie's and Sarah's old things in, and a few other things Harry had collected over the years. The group had gathered around Harry's belongings and were staring at it with utter sadness.  
  
Harry was a little confused as to why these people would care about his stuff or him so much. He had never seen people like this, He had seen plenty of cops and child service workers but these people were neither. Harry was soon shocked once again as he heard the giant of a man bellow out in a great sob "Poor Harry!!"  
  
When Harry heard this he immediately froze. 'How did they know my name? The only people who know my real name are dead, except for my aunt and uncle, but they probably think I'm dead anyway' Harry thought. He then decided to make himself known. He crept over behind them without them noticing, Mag silently following. He positioned himself between the strange group and the door and said in his slow and dangerous drawl, "wha' business you lot got 'er".  
  
The entire group nearly jumped out of there skin when they heard Harry's voice. They all spun around and nearly chocked when they saw him standing there. Harry was covered in filth from head to foot. He was wearing a faded canvas jacket over an old flannel shirt he had found. He had on a pair of shredded slacks someone had thrown out and was wearing a cracking pair of leather boots. One of the boots was so old and dry rotted that they could see Harry's toes through a hole in them which were blue and black on the tips due to frostbite. On his hands, Harry was wearing a torn pair of gloves that some of his fingers stuck out of, this was how they noticed that he only had four fingers on his left hand(he had lost one in a fight). Harry had silver loop earrings in his ears that he had found once and decided to pierce his ears. His matted hair hung down his weathered face and over his shoulders and every part of skin they could see had scars somewhere on it.  
  
Harry did not like the way the whole group just stared at him in horror and sorrow. It made him feel very awkward and he was already uncomfortable with the fact that he was outnumbered on his own territory. Tiered of there gawking Harry spoke again, "dis er's my territory, wha' business you lot' got 'er, I aint don na'in ta you." This seemed to snap them out of there stupor. Then the middle aged man with brown and gray hair stepped forward and started "Harry..." but was cut of as a large black and gray dog appeared in front of Harry and began to snarl in a deadly way that said 'Come any closer and I'll tear you to peaces'. Remus backed away quickly and looked at the dog apprehensively.  
  
Harry said in almost a snarl "How 'da you know my real name." Remus looked back up at him, realizing that they were going to have to explain everything to him, and said "Harry, I was friends with your parents, I haven't seen you for twelve years." Harry replied "what da hell are you talkin' abou', I aint got no parents." Remus looked incredibly sad when he said this and replied "They died when you were one Harry, that's when you were sent to live with your aunt and uncle." Harry shot back quickly "wha' da' fuck da' you know abou' my aunt an' uncle." Harry was getting very angry and was twice as confused. The man, seeing Harry's anger, said to him in a quite voice, "We know about what he used to do to you and about him leaving you to die." Harry was now even more confused as to how they new that. He then asked again with a little less malice "wha' da' you wan' with me?" Then the old man with the beard spoke up, "Harry, perhaps it would be best if we told you every thing all at once, there is a lot we have to offer you." Harry studied the old man for a moment with a gaze that would have made anyone else squirm, but the man just calmly smiled. Harry nodded and said "I'm listnin".  
  
"Thank you Harry, perhaps I should introduce my companions before I begin. My name is Professor Dumbledore. This is Professor Remus Lupin, Professor McGonagall, Professor Hagrid, Professor Flitwick and these are Professor Granger and Professor Granger. This is there daughter Hermione, and these are Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom." Harry nodded to all of them as they were introduced. They all still looked too shocked to be able to move except for Remus and Dumbledore. Harry ignored them and said "'ello every'un, dis er's Mag." Dumbledore smiled at the dog and said "Nice to meat you Mag". Mag let out a short bark after he said this.  
  
"You have a very intelligent dog Harry, quite obedient also" Albus complemented. Harry just grinned and said "dat she is". Harry always looked to Mag when it came to judging a persons character, this is why he already new he could trust these people. If any of them had been hostile in any way, Mag would have let him know by know.  
  
Well the first, most important and defiantly most shocking thing that I should tell you might be a bit hard to believe. That is of course the fact that you are a wizard." Harry raised an eyebrow at the man and replied "what ja' just say." Dumbledore smiled brightly and said, "You are a wizard Harry, capable of doing magic, your parents were as well. We all come from a school called Hogwarts that teaches the art of magic." Harry was beginning to get a bit irritated and said with a scowl "look ol' man, I got a lot better things ta do dan listen ta' yer babblin', so ether star' makin some sense er leave me da' hell alone."  
  
The old man replied "I know it is hard to believe Harry but I am telling you the truth, you are indeed a wizard." Harry was now starting to get angry again, "Dar aint no such thing as magic, even if der was, I sure as hell don got none". Dumbledore continued to grin at the boy, "really, then how exactly did you get that lock open earlier today." As he said this Harry's eyes got wide, "how da you know about that". The old man simply replied, "Magic".  
  
They could tell that Harry was thinking frantically. He was trying to figure out exactly what was going on. He raised his eyes to Dumbledore and said "prove it" as if daring him. Dumbledore smiled and said, "Absolutely." He then reached into his pocket and began to draw some thing. Harry's paranoia then kicked in as he instinctively took a step back, thinking the man would draw a weapon, and quickly drew his switch blade out and held it at his side. Mag began to growl at his side and they both gathered there muscles together, ready attack if necessary. Every one in the room froze once again, not knowing why the boy had suddenly drawn a knife. Albus, realizing quickly what had caused the boy to defend himself, slowly pulled the wand out of his pocket and held it up for him to see. This had confused Harry once again. "I'm not going to hurt you Harry" he said calmly.  
  
Harry paused for a moment, still confused as to why the man was carrying a long stick, and nodded. When he put the knife away Dumbledore smiled and said "well there is a lot we have to tell you so we might as well get comfortable." He then casually waved his wand and suddenly, several couches appeared around them. When Harry saw this he thought he had finally done what he had been afraid of doing for three years, lose his sanity. He took several steps back breathing very heavily.  
  
'This can't be real' he thought frantically. But it did look real. Harry looked to Mag to see if she had seen anything and saw here running back and forth also trying to figure out what had happened. 'At least I'm not seeing things' he thought. He looked up to the others in the room. Most of them were looking at him cautiously, not sure of how he would react, but the old man was staring at him in an amused smile. The old man sat down on one of the couches and said "now do you believe me Harry".  
  
Harry was still in to much shock to answer. When he started to calm down a bit he looked to Dumbledore with amazed eyes and sputtered out, "what-how did you..." He then paused and scratched his head. Dumbledore the said in a calm tone, "sit down Harry, we have much to tell you."  
  
Harry slowly, cautiously crept over to a couch near him and sat down in it looking at the man with anticipating eyes. Mag came over and lay next to him on the couch, her head in his lap.  
  
As all the others sat down on the couches Dumbledore spoke, "Perhaps I should start by telling you about Lily and James, I hade kno..." He was cut off as Harry interrupted "who er' Lily an' James?" Dumbledore did not expect this. He gave Harry another sad look and said in an equally sad voice "Lily and James were your mother and father Harry." Harry Just nodded, a bit surprised, but after a silent moment he smiled and said almost to himself "Lily's a pretty name, Lily an' James".  
  
The others in the room just looked at him as if they were starting to question his sanity until Dumbledore continued, "Indeed, anyway, on with the story. As I was saying, I have known your mother and father since they started school when they were both eleven years old. You father had come from a wizard family and your mother came from a non-magical family, which we call muggles. They were both probably the two smartest people in the school at the time, they were even mad head boy and girl in there seventh year. They were truly great people, everyone loved them like family it seemed."  
  
Harry was listening with a blank expression. All the Dursley's had ever told him was that they were useless slobs who had gotten themselves killed in a car accident. This brought a scowl to his face as he realized that the Dursley's had only said that to torment him. He quickly forgot this though as the old man continued. "Yes, they were marvelous people indeed, they got married shortly after they finished school and obviously gave birth to you. You all lived in a nice little house in Wales together. You were a happy family indeed, despite the troublesome times."  
  
This seemed to stir something in Harry's mind. He seemed to be staring of into space for several moments. The others were waiting to see if he was going to react, but he seemed to be miles away. When the old man had talked about Harry's family it had reminded him of the family he occasionally visited in his dreams. Harry got a small smile on his face and asked no one in particular, "she had ... red hair, an'... green eyes? An 'e' had... black hair, like mine. Dar was a couch... we sat on da couch." He got a wide grin on his face as he realized that the family he had always wanted to be a part of was in fact his family. He leaned back in the couch smiling at the memory. Some of the women in the room were crying slightly, Dumbledore began again, "Yes your mother did have red hair and green eyes, your eyes in fact. And your father did have your black hair." Remus was next to speak, "You all used to sit on your couch at night together, Lily would hold you until you would fall asleep." Harry seemed to snap out of his trance as he said this, he smiled up at them and said, "da's da only thing I can remember" in a soft, loving voice he usually reserved for when he would talk about Maggie, or his other dead friends.  
  
All was silent for a moment as they watched Harry sit and smile to himself. The image of his family was clearer than ever before. Mag began to lick his face and he suddenly snapped out of his peaceful trance. "You was sayin'" Harry said. This seemed to break Albus out of his own trance as he suddenly began to speak again. "Ah, yes, back to the story. Okay, so you were living with your parents when you were an infant. Now, at the time our world was in a terrible state. This was all caused by a man named Tom Riddle who came to call himself Lord Voldemort." As he said this Harry noticed all the others in the room shuddered. He could not figure out why they were so nervous over such a silly name as that.  
  
Harry raised his eyebrows at the old man and said "Lord Voldemort?" Dumbledore smiled and said "Yes, does sound a bit silly I suppose, but there was really nothing silly about him. He was a very powerful wizard, he killed many of the greatest witches and wizards of the world and was a great threat to the world at the time, many feared that he could not be stopped." "Why was 'e' doin' all that stuff" Harry asked. The old man replied "He was a very brutal man. He was power hungry, insane, and defiantly had the magical ability to get what he wanted. No one was ever able to stop him, that is of course until you came along." "What?" Harry replied once again confused.  
  
Albus continued "Here comes the sad part of the story. We received intelligence that Voldemort was after your family. We cast a very powerful protection charm on your house that could not be broken by Voldemort. What we did was cast a very complicated charm called the Fedilious charm that would hid you as long a chosen secret keeper did not revel your whereabouts. Your mother and father chose there best friend Sirius Black to be there secret keeper. To everyone's shock, Sirius betrayed your family to Voldemort. Voldemort then came to your house to kill you, when he got there your father tried to hold him off to give you and Lily a chance to escape. It did not work however. Voldemort killed your father and quickly caught up to you and your mother.  
  
When Voldemort tried to kill you, your mother took the curse for you and she was killed instead. Your mother loved you so much that she died to save you. After your mother was dead Voldemort then cast the killing curse on you. But it did not work. You see your mother's love for you was so strong and powerful that her sacrifice protected you from Voldemort's curse. Love is something he could never understand; therefore he was not able to touch you after your mother poured her love into you. When his curse hit you it was turned against him instead. He was torn from his body but he never really died, he had taken precautions to prevent death and was almost immortal. I believe that only his essence is in existence. He may return one day, but we will meet him when he does. After your parents death I regret to say that it was I who sent you to your aunt and uncles. I would like to apologize for ever sending you there to be abused, I should have checked up on you once in a while. Please understand that I never meant for you to suffer so much. If you could ever forgive me, it would be more than I deserve." The old man gave Harry an apologetic frown.  
  
Harry had been listening the whole time with his mouth slightly open. A few moments ago he had a thousand questions, now he was speechless. Once he had comprehended what the man had said he looked at Mag who had her head resting on his lap calmly. Mag did not appear to sense any distrust in the man. That was good enough for Harry. Harry nodded his forgiveness to the man, who smiled. "If Mag trust ya', dan so do I, You had a reason fer sendin' me dar, didn't ya?" Harry asked.  
  
Dumbledore replied, "Yes Harry, I had many reasons for not wanting you to live in the magical world. The main reason was that since your aunt was your only living relative on you mothers side, the presence of her blood would have preserved the protection your mother gave you. I wanted you to be safe if he ever returned. Also there was still a lot of Voldemort's followers on the loose, some of them might have wanted revenge on you for what you had done." "Like Black" Harry said angrily. Dumbledore replied "not at the time, you see Black was arrested the very next day. After he betrayed you he went on the run. One of your fathers other friends had gone after him seeking revenge. When he finally caught him, Black killed him along with twelve innocent by-standers. That was when he was arrested. He was placed in the magical prison Azkaban and remained there until last summer when he sum how managed to escape. He is the first to have ever accomplished this. Now he is a fugitive. Oh and before I forget I will have to ask all of you not to tell anyone of what you just heard". They all nodded, including Harry.  
  
Harry lost his anger at Black as he though of a question he had asked himself many times. "How old 'm I" he asked. No one expected this. Everyone in the room looked shocked, again. "Excuse me" Dumbledore asked, not sure if he had heard correctly. "Do ya know how old I 'm, when was I born?" Harry replied. Dumbledore quickly got over his shock and replied, "You were born on July 31, 1988. You are almost exactly thirteen and a half years old." "Oh, no one never tol' me" Harry said. Harry suddenly went in to a fit of coughing witch made them all flinch. "Are you all right Harry?" Flitwick asked. Harry looked up after he had stopped and said "I'll be alright".  
  
Then the old lady spoke for the first time. "Harry, when you were eleven years old, you were supposed to begin to attend Hogwarts. We sent Hagrid to your aunt and uncle's house to pick you up, that was when we found out you weren't there. We would know like you to come back to Hogwarts with us so that you can begin you magical education." Harry had been expecting this but was very uneasy a bought it. He had never had been to school and could not even read. All he had ever known was the cupboard and the streets. He had no idea how to act in a way that these people considered civilized. He nervously said "look, I'm not sure da' would be a good idea, I never actually been ta school, I aint to sure I'd do to well, I mean, I always wanted ta go ta school, but, I don t'ink I could do wa'is expected." Now Dumbledore spoke with a smile, "None sense Harry, you'll do fine. You will definitely be a bit behind but I think we can arrange a tutor session until you get caught up."  
  
Harry's excitement was now overcoming his nervousness. "Ya, ya really mean it, I can go ta school" Harry said very eagerly. Dumbledore chuckled and replied, "You can and you will, Harry. I am happy to see you are so eager."  
  
The wide grin on Harry's face suddenly vanished. Harry said in a very sad voice, "I still won' be able ta go, schools cost money an' I only got a little." Dumbledore just chuckled again and said, "That won't be a problem Harry, your parents left you plenty of money. Today is Thursday so perhaps Hagrid could take you to by your school supplies on Saturday. You should be settled in by then". "I'd love to" Hagrid said. The old man then said in his cheerful voice "good, than it's settled, you can come to Hogwarts with us."  
  
Harry's grin was back. "Tank' you, tank' you so much, can Mag come too." "Of course she can, she seems to be well trained, I don't see why she would be a problem. We can leave right after I have a word with my colleagues about how to go about getting you sorted, why don't the three of you help Harry gather all his things." Dumbledore then signaled to all the adults present to follow him into a corner.  
  
They all obliged and Harry looked up at the three students and said with a grin which was nervously returned, "Dis' is amazing, do you really all learn magic at da school?" They seemed to lighten up a little as he said this. Hermione was the one who answered "Yes we do Harry, We also learn potions and a few other fields that involve magic. You'll love it there." Harry replied "I is sure I will. By da way, wha' did he mean 'bout being sorted." She then explained to him about the Sorting Hat and the four houses. "Really, wow, dis is so amazin'; wha' houses 'er you guys in?" Harry asked. Now Ginny spoke up "Were all in Gryffindor." Harry then said, "Well maybe I'll be in der to." Hermione then spoke up again, "That would be nice, then we could help you out till you get to know the place." Harry replied "really, tank you, If I do get in I'll take ya up on dat."  
  
Harry then began shoving all his more valuable items into his back pack, deciding to leave all his extra clothes. When he went to grab his bed role Hermione said, "You won't need any of that, they have nice beds in the dorms to sleep on, and you'll also be able to by some clothes when you go to by school supplies". Harry's smile got even bigger, "I aint never slept on a bed before, this is gettin' better an' better."  
  
By the time the adults had come back over Harry had everything he wanted to take with him in his bag. He had decided to leave most of his clothes, thinking that they definitely would not be suitable if he was going to have to become civilized.  
  
"Are you ready Harry" Remus asked. Harry nodded. "Good now when we get there we are going to get you sorted right away, I must warn you that in our world you are quite famous and everyone thinks you are either lost or dead. So when we arrive, I can not tell you what to expect from your fellow students. There is no reason to be nervous though, I'm sure you'll fit right in. Now this is a portkey, all you have to do is hold on to Mag and when you touch it, you will both be transported to Hogwarts, It may feel a little weird though."  
  
Harry nodded, willing to believe almost anything, and grabbed hold of Mag. They all then touched the book In Dumbledore's hand.


	3. Into a New World

**Chapter Three**  
  
Harry felt a sharp tug behind his navel the second his hand touched the book. He felt as If he were moving faster than light. He was soon relieved of this sickening feeling as his feet slammed into the ground. He staggered a little, but did not fall as most of the others did. Taking a few deep breaths he regained his bearings and looked around the room in awe.  
  
He was standing in a large entry hall with two gigantic oak doors leading into it and several doors and halls leading out of it along the walls. The room was magnificent, to say the least. Expensive looking portraits hung all over the walls and shiny suits of armor stood all over the room.  
  
"Welcome to Hogwarts Castle Harry" Dumbledore said. Harry stared at him. "Castle?" he questioned. The old man just smiled and winked at him. He then began to walk toward some of the majestic twin-doors in the hall, motioning for Harry and the others to follow.  
  
"Ah, excellent, were just in time for dinner. Am I correct in assuming that Hermione has explained to you all about the sorting ceremony?" Harry nodded and the Headmaster continued. "Wonderful, Minerva, would you please go and fetch the sorting hat from my office? I'm going to have to make a short speech announcing your existence and then we can get you sorted Harry". Harry nodded to the Professor and they all followed him over to the doors.  
  
When they opened the doors it was into yet another gigantic hall. This hall was much the same as the one they had just arrived in except there were four gigantic tables filled with students and smaller head table where the other professors were sitting. As soon as Harry had walked into the room he almost moaned in pleasure due to the wonderful aromas of food in the air. He looked over and noticed that the tables were all filled with dozens and dozens of many different varieties of food. Harry once again realized how hungry he was. The winter was always a tough time for food and all he had to eat in the past weak was a can of tuna, a can of dog food, and a small loaf of bread, and he had not eaten anything in the past two days. He had to actually bite his lip to keep him self from running over and shoving as much food in his mouth as humanly possible, but he did not want these people to get a bad first impression of him. Mag was acting just as anxious as Harry. She was walking back and forth restlessly waiting for permission from Harry to begin satisfying her own empty stomach.  
  
Harry was so caught up in all the food that didn't notice as every head in the hall turned to stair at him. Nor did he notice as the hall broke out into whispers.  
  
"Who is that?"  
  
"Why is he dressed like a muggle street rat?"  
  
"What the hell is that thing doing in hear?"  
  
"I sure wouldn't want to cross that guy"  
  
"Where the heck did he get all those scars come from?"  
  
"Are we aloud to have dogs in school?"  
  
Almost every one in the hall were ether looking at him with fear or giving him disgusted looks as if he were some thing stuck to there shoes. But he didn't notice, all he wanted was the food. The smell of it was almost hypnotizing him. He hoped to God that they would give him some. Now that all this food was right in front of him, it became so much harder to ignore his hunger.  
  
The hall fell silent and tore there eyes away from the stranger as the headmaster walked up to the head table and faced the students. The headmaster began, "Good evening my friends, I come before you all today to announce some wonderful news. For some time, a boy who should have been among you all in you studies, has been missing from our world. I am pleased to announce that we have found this young man and he will know be beginning his long overdue education here at Hogwarts. I would like you all to meet Harry James Potter, who is just about to be sorted."  
  
The hall then broke out into a loud roar.  
  
"Did he say Harry Potter?"  
  
"I thought he was dead."  
  
"That filthy street rat is Harry Potter?"  
  
"Cool, I hope he's in Gryffindor."  
  
Just then Professor McGonagall entered the hall carrying a stool and a hat. She set them both in the middle of the hall and walked over to the side. Dumbledore then spoke again, "well then, on with the sorting. Harry, if you will." Harry had torn away from the food and began to walk toward the stool, Mag following obediently at his side.  
  
That was when he first noticed how many people were in the hall. This made him very uncomfortable. He forced himself to ignore them as he sat on the stool and, feeling a bit silly, put the hat on. When he did he heard a voice in his head.  
_  
"A yes you, I was wandering when I'd be seeing you. Let's see, oh my there's talent, much talent indeed. A fast learner. Oh my yes, very good mind. Loyal to your friends, you are also. Lets see, cunning, oh dear very cunning, very impressive, you would do great in Slytherin, yes very great indeed. But theirs one quality in you that outdoes them all, yes, you are defiantly the most courageous I've seen in a long time, better make it..._** GRIFFINDORE!!"**  
  
Most of the students from three of the tables began to cheer loudly, the students from the other table mostly just scowled at him in disgust. Harry did not like the cheering at all; he hated being the center of attention, especially in such a large group of people. Fighting the impulse to take of out of the hall, he nervously walked over to the Gryffindor table to where Hermione and Neville had scooted apart to make room for him.  
  
"Congratulations Harry" Hermione said as she made room for him. "Yeah, welcome to Gryffindor Harry" Neville said nervously. Harry nodded his thanks, but was only half listening. He was once again caught up with all the food in front of, which he was eyeing anxiously. Ginny must have noticed Harry's reaction to the food. "Help yourself Harry" She said to him, as he practically shivered with anticipation. "Really?" Harry asked with a hopeful smile on his face. Hermione then spoke up, "Of course Harry, you are a student here now, and this food is for the students."  
  
Harry didn't ask again, he gave them all a thankful look, and began to eat everything he could reach. He silently threw some chicken under the table to where Mag was sitting at his feet. Hermione, Neville and Ginny were all staring at him with slight sadness. Harry looked up at them and asked "wha'". Hermione couldn't help herself and asked "When was the last time you had something to eat, Harry?" immediately wishing she had not said anything. But Harry did not look offended. He thought for a moment and said, "two days" and returned to the food, occasionally darting his eyes around nervously at the people around him, most of which were making no effort to not to stare at him.  
  
He noticed that there were two girls across from him who were staring at him with disgusted faces. His head quickly shot up and he locked eyes with the two girls. There disgusted looks immediately turned to fright as they both let out little squeaks and shot there eyes down at there plates. Harry then continued eating, occasionally staring back at everyone around him who where eying him. He felt very uncomfortable the whole time, but was too hungry to care.  
  
All Harry cared about at the moment was the food. This was literally the best food he had ever eaten, and defiantly the most food he had ever eaten at one sitting in his entire life. Most of the people where he came from, including him, would kill for an opportunity like this. If not for the education, then just for the food. And he was defiantly not going to take it for granted.  
  
Within twenty minutes he had consumed more than he had in the past month and was at last full. He was also glad to see that most of the people around him had gone back to minding there own business.  
  
Harry could not remember ever being this happy. At least not since his friends all died. He was now anxious to start school. Wondering when he would be able to start he turned to Hermione, who seemed to be on top of things, and asked "Hermione, when da I get ta go ta school with you." Hermione smiled at Harry's enthusiasm towards school and said, "Well, I guess you should be able to start tomorrow, even though your still behind and don't have your supplies yet. I'm sure Neville could lend you some robes until you get your own, right Neville?" Neville then replied with a little more enthusiasm than before, "sure Harry, no problem, they might not fit you very well though." Harry grinned at the nervous boy and said "tanks a lot Neville, that'll do jus' fine."  
  
By that time dinner was over and Hermione, Ginny and Neville began to escort Harry back to the Gryffindor tower. As they were walking out of the hall Harry thought of something else. "Uh, wha' exactly are da' classes ya' take 'ere?" he asked. Hermione, who Harry noticed always seemed to be ecstatic about the topic of school, replied "well, we study transfiguration, herbology, potions, charms, care of magical creatu..."  
  
Hermione was cut of by the cocky voice of a tall redheaded boy who was being followed buy two other boys and the same two girls who were staring at Harry with disgust earlier. "Stop boring the man know it all; I seriously doubt he wants to be pestered by your rambling about school Granger." The four of them turned towards voice and all of them glared at him, except Harry, whose face remained blank.  
  
"Shut the hell up Ron, why do you have to be such an ass all the time" Ginny said with rage. Ron just glared back at her and said "why do you have to hang out with these two losers all the time, its so embarrassing being related to you some times." Ron then turned back to Harry and held out his hand, "I'm Ron Weasley by the way, nice to meet you. You don't want to hang around with the wimp and the now it all here; they don't really fit in around here any. We can help you get to now the place much better than they can I assure you."  
  
Harry look at him and chuckled a little at the at the boys offer of friendship. Harry reached out grabbed his hand. Ron smiled, thinking that Harry was accepting his friendship, but his smile quickly vanished as Harry started to squeeze his hand harder and harder until Ron was on his knees trying to hold back tears. Harry just stared at him with a slightly amused face and said, "Whose da wimp, Ron?"  
  
Harry then let go of his hand. Ron got up and immediately took several steps back. He looked at Harry with shock and fear and stuttered, "w-what the hell man, I didn't do anything to you." Harry, whose face was still blank, replied "No, but I don' like people who judge others so easily."  
  
Ron hade now regained his cool and said "you better watch yourself Potter; you don't want to get of on our bad side." Harry raised an eye brow in amusement. "Well dat sounds terrifyin', ya do all look like a scary lot, 'specially dem two", Harry replied sarcastically, motioning to the two girls who were cowering away from Harry. Ron got a furious look on his face but could not think of anything witty to say. The group then walked away, all shooting Harry glares which caused Mag to growl with malice.  
  
After they were gone he turned back to his three companions who were all laughing out loud. "Don think 'e' likes me much, do ya?" he asked with his own amused grin. Ginny said between laughs, "That was brilliant, oh the look on Ron's face, I think you nearly made him wet himself." "It's good to see him get put in his place" Neville said with no apprehension like before.  
  
"Wha's da' deal with all dem anyhow, why are day all so rude" Harry asked after they once again began to climb up to the tower. Hermione replied, "Oh, there just full of them selves. They think there cool and consider us losers. The black boy was Dean Tomas, he basically just follows the heard around. The red head is Ginny's brother; he's probably the cockiest of them all. The other sandy-haired boy was Seamus Finnigan, he's just like Ron except if possible, even dumber," Harry chuckled as Hermione continued. "The two girls that were with them were Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, incase you couldn't tell by there makeup there both kind of sleazy". Harry laughed and said, "I'll say, hey ya' think there's a place I could clean up a bit, I aint as well groomed as da rest of ya, don wan' ta offend anyone." Ginny then spoke "of course Harry, Neville can show you the showers in your dorms and you can get changed and cleaned up."  
  
Once they had made it to the tower, Harry was once again shocked by the elegance of the castle. Hermione and Ginny decided stayed in the common room while Neville led Harry towards the showers. When they got there Neville gave Harry some robes and told him that he would be in the common room with Ginny and Hermione when he was finished. Harry then took off all the rages he was wearing and shoved them into his back pack. He had never taken a shower before and wasn't exactly sure about how to go about taking one. He stepped in under the shower head and twisted the knob, but nothing happened. He continued to play around with it for a moment before he finally pulled up on it and a scalding hot shower of water began pouring down on him. He jumped away in shock and twisted the knobs until the shower was at least cool enough to stand under. Grabbing a wash cloth and some soap, he began washing off the nine years of grime covering his body.  
  
An hour later a very handsome Harry Potter came down the stairs of the dormitories and walked into the common room, his dog following closely by his heals. He looked like a whole different person. His skin, although still covered in scars, was no longer blackened with filth, but held a weathered bronze tan. His hair still hung below his shoulders and was know soft and shaggy instead of greasy and matted. His rags were gone and he now wore Neville's neat robes witch were just a little bit too stocky. Harry felt a little stupid wearing a robe but he still felt better than he had ever felt in a long time. He was clean and had a full stomach, something he could not ever remember being.  
  
As he walked over to his three new friends, they all looked shocked. To be honest they did not recognize him at first. Harry smiled a little at their expressions and said "how da I look?" After a moment Hermione spoke, "You look great Harry, almost didn't recognize you." Then Ginny added, "yeah Harry, you look much better now." Neville nodded his agreement and Harry told them all thank you.  
  
They all sat and talked to Harry about Hogwarts and Quidditch, which Harry had been very interested in.  
  
After a little while a tall red headed boy with spectacles came over to introduce himself. He turned out to be Ginny's other older brother Percy. Percy seemed to Harry to be a bit up-tit and bossy, but overall a good guy.  
  
Harry also was confronted by Lee Jordan, Fred Weasley, and George Weasley, who he quickly became friends.  
  
The small group continued to chat for about another hour when they all decided to go to bed. Neville and Harry bid the girls good night and went up to there dormitory. When they got there they noticed that Ron, Seamus and Dean were all sitting huddled up together on one of the beds.  
  
"If it isn't Potter and the wimp, can't they see where there not wanted" Seamus said with disgust. The other two boys both started to laugh but quickly stopped as Harry advanced towards them with a murderous smirk on his lips. "you three wan' another demonstration on who's really da' wimp?" Harry asked. They were all silent and looking at the slightly mad boy with apprehension. When none of them answered Harry said in his slow dangerous drawl "den shut da' fuck up". He then turned back to his bed and sat down on it with his back to them, not expecting the fight to be over.  
  
The three boys must have gotten there courage back because Harry soon heard Ron's voice behind him. "Were not afraid of you Potter, the three of us could easily take you and Longbottom with our eyes closed." Harry turned around and saw three wands pointed at him. Mag was now growling, she looked as if she was about to start tearing people to peaces. Harry did not know much about magic or what kind of damage it could cause, so he did not want to be hit by any of it. He slowly turned around and walked towards the three boys and said "is da' so Weasley, cause I don' recon all you rich punks could even get past me an my dog, even if ya do have dem wands."  
  
The three of them just laughed at this. Ron then said "well Potter, I'd say we should teach you a little lesion about who's in charge in this dormitory. The three of them all began to shout something but before they could finish, Harry had swiftly closed the space between them, grabbing Ron's wand quickly out of his hand and kicking Dean's wand right out of his grip while Mag bound on top of Seamus, pining him to the ground, and began snapping his sharp teeth just centimeters from his face. All this had happened before anyone had any time to react, or even blink for that matter.  
  
Everyone in the dorm but Harry looked shocked at the street kid's speed. Harry then pulled the switch blade out of his packet and advanced towards Ron with it. Ron began to back up apprehensively until his back was against the wall. Harry reached forward to grab the front of Ron's robe and said in a soft but deadly voice, "Now you listen ta me Weasley, I don now much 'bout magic, but if ya go lookin' fer trouble with me, you gona find more dan ya can deal with. Now, I is goin' to sleep, an I'm a very light sleeper so don' try nothin'"  
  
Harry then walked over to his bed, bid Neville good night and pulled the covers down to get in. When he first lay down on the mattress it almost brought tears to his eyes it was so comfortable. That night Harry slept better than he could ever remember sleeping. He didn't even have any nightmares.  
  
Remus Lupin sat in front of his fireplace holding a glass of fire whisky. He normally didn't drink much, but know he felt he needed to.  
  
The events of the day were wonderful indeed. They had finally found Harry. Remus had prayed for this day for over three years and it had finally come.  
  
But the condition that they had found Harry in had broken his heart. He could not imagine what kind of hardships his best friend's son had been through. He wished Harry could have had a happy childhood and grown up in a loving home. The thought of Harry's life till now depressed him so much that he could barely even function properly. This was why he had been drowning himself with whiskey for the past hour.  
  
He was so lost in his unclear thoughts that he did not even realize that the Headmaster had walked into his quarters and was standing over him. "Having trouble dealing with reality are we?" Remus nearly yelled when the old voice of the Headmaster broke his thoughts. Looking up at the headmaster Remus asked, "Albus what are you doing in hear."  
  
The old man looked down to the glass of whiskey in his hand and replied, "I think the question is what are you doing". Remus immediately felt ashamed at having resorted to alcohol in order to ease his troubled mind.  
  
He looked back to the old wizard and said sadly, "How could this have happened?" Albus came and sat down on a chair next to him and said, "You must not dwell on it Remus, all we can do now is try and give Harry the best life possible. That is why I came here. I was hoping that if you were free tomorrow after diner you would be able to give Harry his first tutoring session. We might as well get him caught up quick."  
  
Remus agreed eagerly at the opportunity to spend time with Harry. After the old man left he went to sleep, looking forward to the next day.  
  
End of Chapter Three   
  
Thank you for reading this chapter of my story. Chapter four is currently under work and should be up by next week sometime. The following are my responses to my reviewers.  
  
**Eden's Echo**:  No, I do not plain on making a ridiculously powerful 'super Harry'. Thanks for the review.  
  
**Elissar****: ** Thank you, I will.  
  
**Spacecatdet****: ** I appreciate you advice. I will admit I am terrible with spelling and grammar and should probable look into that.  
  
**Shdurrani****:** Thanks for the review.  
  
**Raven Potter Weasley:**  I'm glad to see your enthusiasm. Your idea really does sound like a good one but unfortunately I have already written a basic plot line in my head and that is not part of it. So sorry. On the other hand, I do plain on those pairings as of now and I never did say Jack was dead, did I.  
  
**Scott:**  I'm glad you like my story. That thing about the time line is very interesting. I had never known that but I have had other people tell me that the dates were wrong. I may change that if I get time. Thanks for the review.  
  
**Meresger**:  That's some very constructive criticism. Thank you. I realize that there are a lot of plot holes but I do plan on filling them in the future chapters using flashbacks and such. About Harry's birthday, I honestly did not know that and may go back and change it but until then it is irrelevant to the story. As for why Sirius broke out, I explained that it was because he wanted revenge and wanted to look out for Harry. In the Philosopher's Stone if you recall, Harry was the one to pull the stone out of the mirror. Dumbledore would have stopped them before they could ever get the stone. Ginny would not have poured herself into the diary so much because she would not have had a crush on Harry and would have had Hermione and Neville's friendship. About Harry being tracked by his magic. I do not think it would matter where it came from, just who. Dobby probably used elf magic to fool the system. I know the three students probably would not have gone to London to find Harry but it fits well with my story line so what the hell. The rest is all your opinion. Good Review, really made me think.  
  
**Dreams of Magic:**  Thanks for the input


	4. Amongst Society

**Chapter 4**

**Amongst Society**  
  
When Harry woke up the next mourning a wide grin immediately spread across his face. Last night was the best night sleep he had ever gotten. He had no nightmares and was not woken by the unpredictable sounds of the city that he was used to.  
  
He swung his legs out of the bed and sat on the edge of the mattress. When he looked around he noticed that everyone was asleep still and that it was probably very early. Looking at the clock on the wall he saw that it was only a quarter to six. Neville had told him that normally people don't get up till about seven thirty on week days so he decided to try and get some more sleep. With that he climbed back into bed and closed his eyes in an attempt to get some more rest.  
  
Harry lay there thinking about what surprises the day might hold. As anxious as he was he did not have a prayer of getting any more sleep.  
  
After fifteen minutes of tossing and turning, Harry finally gave up and got out of bed. After he had gotten dressed he quietly walked out of the dorm and down to the common room, Mag following closely at his heals.  
  
When he got to the common room he was a bit thankful to see that it was still empty. After all the excitement and life changing events of the previous day, he felt he needed some time alone to think.  
  
He went over to a couch near the fire and sat down with his dog. As he thought over what had happened in the last twenty-four hours his head began to spin once again. It seemed like a month ago that he, Jack, and Mag were roaming the streets of London looking for food. As he thought of the previous day he thought of the fight he had with the malicious gang. '**_Why did they have to bother me? Why are they always out to get me...why...why... WHY GOD DAMN IT!'_** Harry mentally screamed. **_'I never wanted any trouble; all I want is for them to leave me alone. WHY THE FUCK IS EVERYONE ALWAYS OUT TO GET ME, ALL I DO IS MIND MY OWN BUSINESS! WHY CAN'T EVERYONE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE DAMN IT!'_**  
  
Harry never actually liked to fight, regardless of how good he was at it. He had never done anything for which he felt ashamed for, Maggie had taught him right and wrong, but it still made him feel unclean whenever he had to hurt someone, especially if he killed them. The fact that he had probably killed a few of his attackers yesterday was beginning to tear him up inside.  
  
Death was something he had never become accustom to. It still made him sick, even after all of the times he had been in close proximity to it.  
  
After he had calmed down a bit he realized that he could now put all of it in the past. He was in a school now. Everything here was foreign to him, but he seemed to feel almost at home already. He hoped that in his new life he would not be so exposed to incidents like the previous morning. A small smile spread across his face as he thought about becoming 'civilized'. The thought made him a little uneasy but he new that being a student was defiantly a better life than that of a pickpocket. And if he needed to act civilized in order to stay a student, than he would certainly try.  
  
His troublesome thoughts were ceased when he heard a muffled pair of footsteps descending the stairs leading up to the girl's dormitory. He turned around to see who it was and smiled when he saw Hermione approaching.  
  
She had not seen him yet and jumped when she heard a voice from the couch near the fire. "Mornin' Hermione". She quickly spotted Harry near the fire and gave him a warm smile.  
  
"Good Morning Harry, what are you doing hear so early, I'm usually the first one up in the mornings." Harry smiled at her and replied, "Not any more." Hermione laughed a little and took a seat next to him and Mag.  
  
"So wha' do we do firs' today" Harry asked, still egger to start school. Hermione smiled and answered, "We'll, first we go and eat breakfast, but after that we go to charms class with professor Flitwick. That's a really fun class, you'll love it. I have the text book right hear in fact, you can start reading it now if you want to."  
  
Harry all the sudden seemed to get very uncomfortable at her last statement. He was a bit embarrassed by the fact that he could not even read, especially since he was talking to such a smart girl as Hermione. He had learned a little on how to read from Cat when he was younger, but he had forgotten almost all of it.  
  
Hermione must have noticed his uneasiness because she gave him a slightly worried look and asked, "What's wrong Harry, you look a little odd." Harry decided that he would have to tell her sooner or latter, it would be hard to hide his illiteracy in a school. "Well, ya' see da' thing Is... I... I can' read" Harry said, blurting out the last part.  
  
As he said this, he immediately wished he hadn't. Hermione was defiantly not expecting this and looked at him with an expression of shock. Harry looked at her, but he could not tell what her facial expression meant. He was even more confused though, when Hermione's expression changed to one of sorrow. She looked at him with pity, "You mean nobody ever taught you how to read". Harry cautiously shook his head. Hermione then got a slightly cheerful, but mostly excited look on her face and asked, "Well, would you like me to teach you how to read, it is a very important skill to have."  
  
Harry had not been expecting her to say that. He immediately became excited at the offer to get reading lessens. Looking up at Hermione with a grateful smile her replied eagerly, "Really, you'd teach me how ta' read, I'd love dat, t'ank you so much." Hermione returned the smile and said with equal enthusiasm. "No problem, we can start right now if you want." Harry replied, "Okay", with a huge grin.  
  
Hermione then dug in her bag and pulled out some ink, a quill, and some parchment. She then began to teach Harry the alphabet.  
  
By the time people started to come down for breakfast, Harry had already learned the entire alphabet and was starting to actually learn to read a little. "Your a pretty fast learner Harry, it won't take you very long to become literate at this rate" Hermione said with a smile. Harry returned the smile and said, "T'ank you, you're a very goo' teacher, I really appreciate yur help, you don' no what this means to me, I've always wanted to learn how, but no one else could teach me. Actually my friend Cat started teachin' me once when I was abou' seven, but she died affore I could learn much."  
  
Hermione truly did look saddened by this and said in a caring voice, "I'm sorry, that's terrible, how did she die." Without thinking, Harry replied, "She... ah... well, abou' five or so years ago our gang an' dis other gang 'o' called themselves da' dragons got into a big fight an' we had this huge battle. An' during the battle, she got her hit over the head by this big fellow who used ta fight with a big piece 'o' steel pipe, an' when you get hit with that the lights go out." As Harry finished he turned back to Hermione who was sitting still with a horrified look on her face.  
  
"That's horrible!" she said disbelievingly.  
  
Harry now realized that this was not something he should be discussing here. "Uh, yeah, but she didn' feel no pain at least. Much better than gettin' stabbed in da' gut or sumthin', right." He said, trying to get here to calm down.  
  
"I guess so, what were you fighting over anyway, what could be so important that would cause someone to kill for it?" She asked, almost rhetorically. Harry answered all the same and said, "Oh, well you see, we was livin' in dis warehouse at the time an' that other gang was jus' tryin' to get us out, claimin it was their territory. But it wasn't."  
  
Hermione was looking quite shocked at the moment and Harry didn't know what to say. Hermione then looked up as if just remembering something and asked, "You were in a gang?" Harry nodded, "Um, yeah, I have been since my uncle ditched me."  
  
Hermione appeared to be thinking hard, she was trying to decide what to think of Harry. She had heard about the gangs of the city. She had never been in any form of contact with any of them but she had heard of them. Occasionally there was a report on the news about robberies and drug dealings, even murders that were all gang related. She had always thought of them as just a bunch of immoral thugs who liked to cause trouble. But she was beginning to develop a new point of view. Here was Harry who had no education, no home, no family, certainly no chance at making it in the world alone and he was a gang member. And yet he seemed like a perfectly good person. She began to realize that the only way for Harry to survive was to become a gang member. 'I'll need to help him, he doesn't know right from wrong around here and is going to get into a lot trouble if he behaves like a gang member in a school, maybe mom and dad can help some', She thought. Feeling sorry for him her face softened and she said happily, "Well you seem like a nice boy to me, why don't you stick with me until you get used to this place, I can help you get caught up on your studies too as soon as you get your wand and I'm sure I'll have you reading in no time." Harry smiled and was about to express his thanks just as Ginny and Neville showed up.  
  
"What have you two been doing down hear all morning" Ginny yawned. Hermione replied, "I was just helping Harry learn some of the basics," not wanting to embarrass him. Harry did not seem to notice as he had already gone back to trying to read a book Hermione gave him. "Well let's go to breakfast, I'm starving." Neville said. With that the four of them walked out of the common room, with Mag closely following, and headed down to the great hall for breakfast.  
  
On the way Ginny asked Harry if Ron had given him any trouble the night before. Harry just looked at her with an evil grin, but Neville was the first to answer. "Well, he tried, but Harry and Mag took them all out before any of them could get a single curse out." Hermione and Ginny demanded to know what had happened and so Neville told them both exactly what had occurred the night before. By the end of it, Both Ginny and Neville were both laughing hysterically, but Hermione did not seem amused.  
  
"Harry, you should not have done that, you could get in serious trouble for that, not that I'm saying they didn't disserve it, but you could get expelled for pulling a knife on a student." Hermione said with a stern glair. Harry thought for a moment, hung his head and said, "Your right, I probably shouldn't a don dat, I was jus' reactin', not thinkin'." At this Hermione's expression softened. "It's alright, you didn't know" She said kindly.  
  
The four of them continued to make there way to the Great Hall, talking about nothing in particular. The whole time, Harry remained silent, but listened to them fascinated by what they considered ordinary things. He was still shocked by nearly every surprise his new life held, and that was a lot!  
  
When they entered the Great hall they all walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat next to each other. Harry was once again overcome with joy at the site of the food, but did not eat as savagely as the night before.  
  
About five minutes after they entered the Hall, they were approached by Professor McGonagall. "Mr. Potter, the Headmaster has asked that you report to the Hospital wing after you have finished your breakfast. I believe he intends for Madam Pomfrey to give you a check up." Harry nodded and told her thank you.  
  
After she was gone he turned to the other three and asked, "Where's da' hospital wing". Ginny then said, "Oh, I can show you, it's on the way to my first class so it's no trouble." Harry smiled at her, "T'ank you".  
  
So after they had finished eating, Ginny lead Harry up to the Hospital wing and he sat down in a chair near the door to what for Madam Pomfrey. After a few minutes an old which in white robes came out of the door on the far side of the room.  
  
"Ah, Mr. Potter I presume." When Harry nodded she continued, "Well lets get started shall we, follow me please." She then led Harry into a clean white room with a bed in the center and cabinets covering the walls. She told him to sit down on the bed and to take of his shirt. She then went over to the cabinets to search for something. Harry was more than a bit uncomfortable at taking off his shirt but did as he was told anyway.  
  
When Madam Pomfrey turned back around from the cabinets she let out a short scream at the site of Harry. Harry looked up at this and noticed that she was staring at his chest, probably his scars. He did not like this at all and was about to put his shirt back on when the woman composed herself and briskly walked over to him. She took out her wand and began to perform what seemed to Harry like hundreds of magical tests on him. After she had done her tests she returned to the cabinets and retrieved several bottles of various liquids. She then ordered Harry to drink them one at a time in a specific order.  
  
Harry nervously drank the bottles as she gave them to him. After she had given him all the bottles except for one, Harry was hopping that he would soon be out of there. But, as soon as he drank the last bottle he immediately collapsed on to the bead as blackness overtook him.  
  
Madam Pomfrey now began the long process of bringing the boy up to health. 'The headmaster needs to see this; I wonder if he knows exactly how unhealthy this boy is' she thought. She then called her owl from her office and gave her a note to take to the Headmaster.  
  
After the owl was gone she went back to Harry and began to cast spells and give him potions.  
  
A short while latter she heard a knock on the door, signaling the arrival of Dumbledore. "Come in Professor" she said and the door swung open to revile the old wizard.  
  
"Good morning Poppy, I can see by the state of your patient that you wish to speak to me about Harry's health" Dumbledore motioned to the scarred body lying on the bed. Harry had several different parts of his body glowing as the witch's healing spells did there work on him.  
  
Madam Pomfrey ignored his comment, but said to him with a serious stair, "Do you have any idea how terrible this boy's state is, in all my years of healing I have never seen anyone, especially a child, who was as medically and nutritionally deprived as him."  
  
Dumbledore walked over to the bed and gazed down at the boy whom he failed. "What is the extent of his injuries" he asked without raising his head. Madam Pomfrey walked over to the counter and picked up a clip board which she had recorded her diagnosis of Harry's health on. "Harry was suffering from walking pneumonia and extreme malnutrition. He also has a number of open cuts and bruises, most of them were pretty small but a lot of them were infected and will probably leave light scars. In addition to that he has a minor case of frost bight on all his toes as well as his ears and a few of his NINE fingers. I have had to repair most of his teeth as they were almost all rotten. Most of these I was able to heal easily, except for the malnutrition, which will take time. I will inform him of the proper ways for him to maintain good eating habits so that we can get him healthy as soon as possible. The malnutrition has also stunted his growth, so he will probably grow a lot over the next year or so. These however are only the physical wounds; I can only imagine how disturbed he must be after all that he has been through."  
  
"I agree that that will probably be a problem, it all depends on how well he deals with emotions, as of know though, he does not appear to be a threat to himself or others. I will however keep a close eye on him, at least for a little while," Dumbledore said with a sad sigh.  
  
"How long do you plan on keeping him hear," the old man asked. "He will need to rest for know, his body has gone through a lot of forced healing, but he should be awake by this after-noon, I will give him a once over and then he should be on his way" the woman replied.  
  
"That's good, I would hate for him to have to spend his first day at Hogwarts in bed" he said before thanking the witch and leaving, his expression truly reveling his age.  
  
A few hours latter Harry woke with a terrible headache. He sat up in the bed and tried to remember why he was in the bed. After a moment he remembered the last thing he did before he fell asleep. 'Must have been that potion thing' he thought.  
  
He did not have time to ponder this any more though as the door suddenly swung open. "Ah, I see you are awake Mr. Potter, how are you feeling?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she briskly walked over to the cabinets.  
  
"Fine," He replied. Harry paused for a moment before he continued. "Um, why's I still hear, how-cum ya' put me ta' sleep" he asked.  
  
"You were in a very unhealthy state when you came in hear today, I needed to put you to sleep while I fixed you up" she said as she turned away from the cabinets with a small glass filled with some green liquid which she then gave to Harry. As Harry drank the liquid he felt his headache immediately relinquish.  
  
"T'ank you, wha' times it" Harry said as he started to get out of bed.  
  
"It's about eleven thirty. After I check you over once more you can head on down to lunch"  
  
Twenty minutes latter Harry was walking down the hall way feeling better physically than he could ever have imagined. After he got up he really started to notice just how unhealthy he must have been. After looking in the mirror he had to grin especially at the site of his new teeth. He no longer had that helpless look of a diseased kid he always had in the winter and he did not miss it.  
  
He continued to make his way down to lunch and went to sit down with his three new friends to eat. "What took you so long" Ginny asked.  
  
"Da lady up der put me ta sleep fer a little while, so she could fix me up" Harry responded as he began to fill his plate with food.  
  
"Well you look much healthier know," Hermione said, and they all agreed.  
  
"T'ank ya" Harry said, appreciating there kindness more than they could ever know. It made him a bit uncomfortable but deep down it felt nice to be a part of something again.  
  
After a short while they were once again confronted by a professor. "Good after-noon everyone. Harry, the Headmaster has scheduled for me to give you your first tutoring session tonight. Just come to my office after dinner."  
  
A grin began to spread across his face as he responded, "T'ank you professor, dat'd be great." Lupin smiled to them all and walked away leaving an excited Harry to get back to his meal.  
  
After lunch Neville and Hermione invited him to accompany them to there care of magical creature's class. Harry was very excited at the opportunity to see a magical creature, even though Hermione and Neville told him that most of Hagrid's lessons were usually pretty dull lately. This was the result of an incident that had happened earlier in the year that had caused Hagrid to get depressed. After Hermione and Neville told him about the incident caused by some stupid Slytherin boy who was making a big deal over some minor injury and using it to try and get Hagrid sacked, he was feeling sad for Hagrid and was angered by the actions of the boy. This boy Malfoy, was already starting to remind him of Mel, whom he hated with every fiber of his being.  
  
When they had reached the area near the forest were the class was to take place, they were still a little early. So they all sat down in the grass to wait for class to start. After a few minutes a group of three people walked out of the castle and began to make there way over to them. When they got closer to them Harry could tell that they were not the other Gryffindors, so he figured that they must be the notorious Slytherins. As soon as they got there, the smug looking blond boy approached them and said, "Well, I see the mudblood and the wimp are befriending the filthy street rat. How predictable."  
  
After the boy said this Harry knew it was Malfoy. Anger built up inside him, but he was able to keep it under control. He did not know what a mudblood was but it must have been something bad, seeing as how Hermione was now holding an angry Neville at bay.  
  
Not being one to take any crap from a boy so like Mel, Harry slowly stood up and walked over to the three boys. The slight grin on his face could be described in one word, scary.  
  
Malfoy tried to keep the cool look on his face, but was not entirely successful. Harry got right in front of him and looked him deep in the eye, the blond boy looked away at first but recomposed himself immediately to meet Harry's eye again. Harry looked him up and down before saying, "wa's yur name".  
  
"Draco Malfoy", the boy said with a hint of fear.  
  
"Malfoy," Harry spat, "you da' dumb ass dat got his arm slashed by da' Hippa'griff, how dumb can ya' get. Everyone knows de' don' like bein' disrespected, what da' hell's the matter with you."  
  
Malfoy looked outraged at Harry's comments, but his expression was quickly changed to one of shock as Harry grabbed his robes and shoved him down to the ground. "Now sit down and shut yur cocky trap 'affore I put my foot in it", Harry growled with malice.  
  
Malfoy, infuriated at having been throw down to the ground and made a fool of by Potter, scowled murderously at Harry's back as he began to walk away. Not willing to let the filthy beggar get the better of him, he stood up and aimed his wand at the retreating back of Harry.  
  
Luckily, Harry did not expect Malfoy to leave Him be. The only reason he had retreated was because he did not want to be recognized as the one who had started the obviously inevitable fight. There fore, he was ready when he heard a furious voice from behind him yell, **FERNUNCULUS**! He stepped to the side and felt a white hot ray of light wiz past him. He began to make his way back to the boy a few meters away from him, but was saved the trouble as the door to the cabin swung open to reveal a furious Hagrid.  
  
**"YOU PUT THAT DAMN WAND AWAY RIGHT NOW BOY**, ya' alright Harry, did da little coward get ya'". Harry looked up at the half furious, half worried face of Hagrid and replied, "Na', didn' even come close."  
  
"Ha! figures, stupid coward, attackin' ya when yur backs turned, an he still missed. Malfoy, detention, and thirty points from Slytherin," Hagrid said. Malfoy muttered something that sounded like, 'my father', but Hagrid just laughed and turned back to the class that had just arrived.  
  
"Right, now, I got a special treat fer you lot today, so common over to the paddock 'n' be seated, I jus got to go find her."  
  
The students all slowly obeyed as Hagrid ran of into the forest with his cross bow slung over his shoulder. Harry saw the cross bow and began to wonder why Hagrid would need one to teach a class. "Why's he got dat cross- bow Hermione," Harry questioned as he sat down next to her and Neville.  
  
Hermione seemed quite excited but also a little fearful of what Hagrid's 'Special treat' was. When she heard Harry's question she replied, "Oh, the forbidden forest is very dangerous I hear, I've never been in there before but Fred and George have and they say that theirs plenty of reasons one would need protection if they went in there. It's forbidden to students though so we can't ever go in. Oh, but I bet there's loads of interesting stuff in there."  
  
Harry, Hermione and Neville continued discussing some of the various creatures they have encountered with Hagrid over the years. Harry could not believe that Hagrid had actually had a dragon a couple years ago. Unfortunately the dragon was illegal and Hagrid had to give him up to Ginny's brother who was a dragon keeper in Romania.  
  
Harry looked over his shoulder as he felt eyes on him. When he did he locked eyes with Draco Malfoy who was sitting twenty feet behind him glaring hatefully at him. Harry shot him his own evil sneer and turned back to Neville and Hermione. "I aint doin' to good here am I, I is only been 'ere one day an' I already wen' an' made enemies with two different groups 'o' kids, I don' recon I'll las' to long at this rate," He finished with a sigh.  
  
"A don't worry about Malfoy and Ron, neither of them is worth their wands and to be honest with you, most people would be glad to see you standing up to them, both of those groups treat almost everyone inferior, especially Malfoy," Neville said. Hermione nodded in agreement and said, "Neville's right Harry, those people just aren't worth thinking about. Believe me, I live alone in a dorm with Parvati and Lavender and until now, Neville was alone with Ron, Seamus, and Dean. The only way I haven't gone crazy by now is by ignoring there taunting."  
  
This made Harry feel a little better and he nodded in understanding. In his old world, people like Malfoy were either outcast, dead, or they just used the reflected glory of others to get what they needed, like Mel. Unfortunately, they were not dealt with here the same way as they would have been on the streets. If someone like Malfoy were on the streets, he would be put in his place the hard way, and if he didn't like it, he'd be dead.  
  
But this was a very different world. Here, ones wrong doings were punished by detentions and the deduction of house points. It was clear that this was not effective. Children might be disciplined in the sense that they would refrain from doing wrong in fear of the punishment, but they never actually learned anything by it.  
  
Harry had learned the ways of his world in an entirely different way. He remembered when he was four or five years old and had been inspired by Ethan's principles. Ethan may only have been twelve at the time, but Harry could tell that he was a man despite his age. He just seemed to posses wisdom far beyond his years. Whenever Harry had a problem, it was always Ethan who gave him a logical solution. Harry quickly learned from him the ways of the gangs and although Harry never considered Ethan a father, He always did looked up to him. Perhaps this was because Ethan, who was more than twice his age at the time, always treated Harry as an equal.  
  
It was true that there were some things one could never learn from books alone, Harry's skills were not likely to be of any use here, but there was sure no way that anyone in this school would ever be as well prepared for hardship as he.  
  
Harry was suddenly drawn out of his thoughts when he saw a few birds fly out of the forest as if something had spooked them. Harry gazed the tree line to see what the disturbance was. A moment latter the humongous form of Hagrid strode out of the thicket.  
  
"Sorry about the wait, took me a bit longer ta' find her than I thought I' would. Everyone, I'd like ya' ta' meet my good friend, Aequitas," He said as he gestured to the creature that had emerged from the woods behind him. When the students saw the beast most of them backed away in fear. It appeared to be a combination of a lion and a human. Harry soon found out exactly what it was as he heard Hermione next to him say disbelievingly, "Oh my god, a sphinx".  
  
Harry to was astonished by the appearance of this creature. At first, the sight of a gigantic lion slash human made him a little apprehensive, but when he noticed that the beast did not have any trace of hostility in its eyes, his fears vanished and were replaced once again with the endless curiosity he had been experiencing these last few days. He noticed the creature, who appeared to be female, was actually looking down on the students with mild amusement at there apprehension.  
  
"You should not fear me my dears, from me you have nothing to fear," The sphinx almost sung in a feminine voice. This did seem to calm the class in general and most of the students who had been scooting away were now returning to there original positions. Though some remained at a distance.  
  
Hagrid looked quite confused by there fearful reactions but shook it off as he started, "Righ', now, o' 'ere can tell me what sort 'o' species Aequitas here is?" Harry turned to see Hermione's hand shoot up before Hagrid had even finished the question.  
  
A few people sniggered at this, but Hermione ignored them. "'Ermione," Hagrid gestured toward her, implicating that she give the answer. "Aequitas is an Egyptian Sphinx," Hermione answered. Hagrid beamed with pride, "Righ' as usual 'Ermione, Five points to Gryffindor." Hermione smiled proudly, despite the derogatory comments of some of her class mates, all of who received a death glare from Harry witch quickly shut them up.  
  
Hagrid then continued, "Okay, now, as 'Ermione said, Aequitas is a sphinx, that bein' said, who can tell me what a sphinx is."  
  
As the class went on, Harry was fascinated by how interesting a sphinx was. Hagrid continued to explain and ask questions, mostly answered by Hermione, all through out the lesson on the different quality's and gifts of a Sphinx while Aequitas provided a perfect model. By the end of the class, Harry was already looking forward to his next class to see what new discoveries it would bring.  
  
"Common, lets go talk to Hagrid" Hermione said, tugging Harry along with here. Harry, Hermione and Neville stayed and talked to Hagrid and Aequitas until Aequitas said she had to leave. When she did, Hagrid invited the three of them to come inside for tea.  
  
Inside the cabin, the four of them sat for awhile to chat over tea. Most of the conversations consisted of Hermione, Neville and Hagrid cheerfully enlightening an excited Harry on anything magical that came to mind.  
  
After an hour or so, the three of them bid Hagrid good buy and marched up to the castle for dinner, still chatting vigorously about Hagrid's lessen.  
  
END OF CHAPTER 4 Hello every one, thanks for waiting for this chapter. I know I said I'd have it up a while ago but my computer lost my files and I had midterms. So I apologize for not being punctual. I do hope to have a new chapter up within about ten days so be patient and while your waiting, why not review?  
  
Godspeednight  
  
Review Replies for Chapter 3  
  
**Maguswizard****:**  
Don't you worry, Harry will get his supplies and be caught up in no time.  
  
**Jack**:  
Thanks, that's the plan so far.  
  
**Warbl365**:  
Thanks a lot.  
  
**Darcey**:  
Thank you very much.  
  
**Shdurrani**:  
Yeah, I hate Ron too, thanks for the Review  
  
**Crazy-lil-nae-nae: Thanks, I will  
  
****Raven**** Potter Weasley:**  
Maybe, I really don't have a story line, I just write down whatever my imagination tells me to.  
  
**Scott**:  
Thanks, I do plan on continuing.  
  
**Annon**:  
Thanks, soon  
  
**Burke**:  
Thank you very much.  
  
**Drusilla**:  
Thanks a lot  
  
**Kaya1**  
Thank you


	5. Past Not Forgoten

**CHAPTER 5  
Past Not Forgotten  
Harry whistled quietly to himself as he and Mag made their way down the hallway that lead to the defense office. Hermione had just left them, but hade given them careful instructions on how to get there. She had guided Harry and Mag most of the way, but because she was on her way to the library, they had separated when they were about halfway.  
  
The whole way down, Hermione could tell that Harry was nervous. So before she left him, she turned to Harry and told him, "Harry, you have nothing to worry about. He's a really great guy and an even better teacher, I'm sure he loves having the chance to finally get to know you."  
  
Hermione's words were not in vain as they seemed to calm Harry a bit. Going to get a one-on-one tutoring session was quite intimidating for him, and the fact that his teacher just happened to be one of his fathers old school friends didn't ease his nervousness. He almost felt like he needed to make him proud. It was true that he wanted to get to know this man, but he never did have good social skills and wasn't very comfortable around strangers either.  
  
Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door that read 'Prof. Remus Lupin'.  
  
"Come in" he heard a friendly voice from inside say. He opened the door and walked in with Mag. As soon as he entered he had to gazed around the room. The room was packed with all sorts of fascinating objects and creatures, as well as hundreds of books.  
  
"Hello Harry, you're right on time" Remus said, looking up from some papers he was grading. "'Ello Professor Lupin" Harry smiled timidly as he tore his eyes away from the walls. Lupin put his papers in a drawer and said "You can call me Remus when it's just us Harry. You only need to call me professor when the other students are around. Now, come over here and have a seat, we have a lot to do."  
  
Harry sat down in the comfortable chair in front of Lupin's desk and Mag lay down in front of him. He was already starting to feel more at ease.  
  
"Now" Remus said looking at Harry, "What were going to do tonight is basically run over the basics of magic. I'll skip all the obvious, since we want to get you up to speed quickly. Now, at Hogwarts, the standard subjects we teach are Charms, History of Magic, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and potions. The only classes that actually involve the use of Magic are Charms, Transfiguration and Defense. At first you will start out by doing small stuff in these, but as you grow more powerful, you will be able to cast more powerful and potent spells." He paused for a moment, indicating for Harry to ask any questions.  
  
"How do ya' get more powerful, does it jus' grow with age" Harry asked curiously. Lupin smiled, "Good question. Yes, magical powers do usually grow according to age, but that is not the only factor. There are many theories as to what else affects magical growth. Basically it is like muscle if you ask me. The more you exercise it, the more it grows. Some also believe that knowledge is the key to power. For example, Professor Dumbledore is defiantly the smartest man I have ever met, but he is also the most powerful wizard in the world. So I'd say that this theory is not to far off." Harry nodded in understanding.  
  
"Now, moving on, we use wands to focus our magic when casting spells. For most spells an incantation is needed, but some only require a specific wand movement. Very powerful wizards can sometimes cast spells through a wand just by concentrating. Understand so far?" Lupin asked.  
  
Harry nodded and asked, "can ya' do magic without a wand." "Yes, sometimes. Usually it takes a very powerful and experienced wizard to cast spells wandlessly, but sometimes people can unintentionally do magic. Usually when they are experiencing strong emotions. Such as when you opened that door yesterday. We call that accidental magic" Remus said.  
  
Harry nodded but appeared to be thinking. After a moment he looked at Remus and said "I reckon I use' ta know a wizard when I was younger. I aint seen 'em in a few years, but now dat I think abou' it, he might 'ave been one. Real nice man, he always used ta' do tricks for us but we jus' though' he was a regular ol' magician. He could do stuff like make things disappear 'r make stuff change shape. I use' ta ask 'im how he did it but he jus' said it was his secret. An now dat I tink abou' it, I reckon he did 'ave a wand too."  
  
Remus looked curious about this. "Really, what was his name?" he asked.  
  
"Um...," said Harry, "I aint sure what his real name is, but we use' ta jus' call 'im Fletch" Harry replied. Remus thought for a moment and asked, "You wouldn't happen to be talking about Mundungus Fletcher would you?"  
  
"Ya, dat's 'im, do ya know 'im?" asked Harry. Remus smiled, "I do as a mater of fact, He was a few years ahead of your father and I in school. Where did you meet him?"  
  
Harry then replied, "Well, I tink e' use' ta do business wif' some guys who lived around us. I tink he's a black market dealer or sumthin'. He used ta come by an' give us bread or apples whenever 'e was in town. Real nice guy, I was always surprised he was a crook 'cus he was always treatin' us right. An we never stole from 'im either so he didn' mind helpin' us out. One time my friend jack go' stabbed in da' gut an' was gona die but Fletch took 'm to a hospital ta get fixed up. Dat was pretty risky fer him 'cus he was probably wanted at da time."  
  
Remus looked a little saddened as Harry talked about his street life, but was surprised to hear about Fletch. "Yeah," Remus said, "He always was a nice man, unless of course he was trying to con you."  
  
The night went on as Remus proceeded to explain to Harry the theories and properties of magic. After an hour or so of Lupin lecturing and Harry listening intently, Remus decided to loaned Harry his wand and began teaching Harry some basic spells. The first time Harry cast a spell he swelled with pride. All he had done was gotten a pen to float a few feet in the air but it still shocked him that he was succeeded. The continued to practice several first year spells late into the night. By the time they were finished, Harry had forgotten all his shyness towards Remus and had already mastered several fundamental spells.  
  
"Great job Harry, you're already getting the hang of it. It'll be so much easier with your own wand though. Now, its time to go back to your common room. I will let you know what time our next session will be, until then, good night" Lupin said as he shook Harry's hand.  
  
Harry thanked Remus before he left. He and Mag then ascended into the Gryffindor tower. It was getting late and he did not expect anyone to be awake when he returned, which is why he was so surprised when he spotted Hermione reading on a couch near the fire.  
  
Looking up from her book Hermione smiled, "Oh, there you are. How did your lesson with Professor Lupin go."  
  
Harry Cheerfully walked over to her. He had had a great time with Remus and was already in a good mood. "Ah' great 'Ermione, didn' realize magic was so complex. Wha' you doin' down 'ear still, it's pretty late."  
  
"Oh, well I just wanted to make sure you got back okay," said Hermione', "and to see if you wanted to practice reading some more."  
  
At her offer, Harry became even happier. "Tank you 'Ermione, I really appreciate ya tryin' ta help me out. I'd be lost withou' ya'." Hermione blushed a little gave him a smile that said she was happy to do it, and she was.  
  
The two of them stayed up for a little while longer until they both decided they were too tiered to continue. After thanking Hermione and saying good night, Harry and Mag ascended the staircase to the dormitory and got into bed, Harry under the covers and Mag snuggled up at his side.  
  
He was very tiered and fell asleep not long after his head hit the pillow. But before he was overtaken by darkness, he took time to once again reflect on his first day. It had been a great day by his standards. 'Hell, that was the best day I've had since Maggie died" he thought.  
  
Harry was panting as he ran down another hall of the abandon building.  
  
'I have to find her, have to..., must find her' the little eight year old child thought in a desperate panic.  
  
He could hear Jack and Sarah, who were running shortly behind him, yelling for him to slow down, but was too scared to care. He couldn't loose Maggie, no one hade ever loved him like she did, and he loved her just the same.  
  
They had been searching for a day now and Harry was becoming more worried every minute. He rounded another corner and his nose twitched as he came across the awful odder of sex, blood and rotting flesh. The odder seemed to be coming from a door that was half open on the left side of the hall.  
  
With out thinking, the child ran into the room and let out an ear piercing screamed when he caught sight of the motionless body lying on the floor.  
  
There in the middle of the room lay the corps of his most cherished love. Her pale face stared emotionlessly at the ceiling. Her arms and legs were tied and a filthy rag was gagging her mouth. Shredded clothes littered the room and left her once beautiful body lying naked on the floor, covered in truly lethal cuts and bruises.  
  
For a few seconds Harry didn't say anything. He was in shock. Death was no stranger to him, he had seen it plenty of times on the streets, but he could never imagine it happening to Maggie. The thought had crossed his mind but never did he admit to himself that it was possible, she was the first to ever love him and now that he had experienced her love, he never wanted to be without it again.  
  
"Maggie?" he asked finally, taking a few steps forward. 'No,' he thought, 'no, no, no she... she can't be dead.' He knelt down beside her motionless body and shook her slightly, but she didn't respond. Her deep blue eyes remained fixed on the ceiling.  
  
Tears began to pour down his face as it began to sink in. "Maggie!" he sobbed, clutching her corpse to his body with all his might. "Maggie, pwease wake up. No, no, no, NO... Maggie, don' be dead pwease, pwease don' be dead mommy, mommy, pwease, ****WAKE UP MOMMY**!" screamed the little boy.  
  
Harry continued sobbing into Maggie's body which he was holding onto for dear life. She was dead. She would not be back. Never again would she be there to help him through the tough times, nor would she be there to kiss his forehead each night before they went too slept. She would no longer be there to cradle him in her arms whenever he woke in the night, screaming from the horrid memories of his uncle. She would never again be there to love him. Her love was gone. The love he had come to thrive off of was gone. And he would never be the same.  
  
He still had love. Jack was his brother, and he loved him like family. And Sarah, he loved her nearly as much as he did Maggie. But there was no one who could ever share with him the same love that he bore for Maggie. The love of a mother to a son. With this thought, young Harry turned away from his 'mommy' and threw-up what little contents his stomach held onto the floor. He only took a few moments to regain his breath before returning to Maggie.  
  
He continued to wail out the pain in his heart and only when Sarah knelt down next to and pulled him to her did he let go. "I'm... s-so s-sorry Harry" she sobbed, for she to had feelings for Maggie. Everyone did, but no one felt for her as much as Harry, her 'son'.  
  
He continued sobbing, tears pouring down his wet face. The wetness on his face was soothing some how; it was not from tears though.  
  
Harry snapped his teary eyes open to see Mag's moon lit face right above him. She was licking his face in a comforting manor, trying to ease the pain she sensed in her master.  
  
After getting his wits about him, Harry opened the curtains to look about the room. Luckily, all his dorm mates were still asleep, he miraculously had not woken them with is screaming.  
  
He was already starting to calm down, these dreams were just a part of life for him. Yes, he did accept them, but he did not ever get used to them, nor was he always able to deal with them.  
  
After drying his tears he lay back down in his bed and curled up tightly with his companion. Completely oblivious to the fact that one of his newest friends was lying wide awake, pretending to sleep, not knowing what to think of what he had just heard. He had woken to the sound Harry screaming out in agony for his mommy. At first he thought that Harry was awake but after looking he realized that He must be having a nightmare. Neville quickly noticed that if Ron or one of the others were to hear this, they would use it. And so he cast on Harry one of the few spells he had ever been able to master, a silencing spell. By the time he was finished, Mag had begun licking Harry's face. Not wanting Harry to know that he had been heard, Neville quickly got back in his bed and lay still, thinking he would defiantly tell Hermione and Ginny in the morning, they'd know what to think of it all.  
  
Remus Lupin strode briskly down the halls in deep thought. 'How could Mundungus know the boy and not tell us, even if he didn't know Harry's name, his scar should have told him all he needed to know. But then again, the boys got so many other scars, and that hair of his all but covers his whole face.'  
  
He continued to ponder this until he came to the large stone gargoyle which hid the entrance of the headmaster's office. "Sugar quill" he murmured, and ascended the moving staircase that the gargoyle reveled. When he got to the top he raised his hand to knock but before he had the chance, he heard a voice from inside call out, "come in Remus, no need to knock." Remus stood for a moment with his mouth hanging slightly opened before he entered the room. He new it would be useless to ask the old man how he had know he was there so he shrugged it off and sat down in front of the Headmasters desk.  
  
"Good evening Professor, I hope I'm not disturbing you in any way" Remus said. The headmaster kindly replied, "Not at all Remus, tell me, how did it go with Harry, no more surprises I hope".  
  
"No, well actually, there was one thing rather shocking, that's actually what I had come hear to talk to you about." The headmaster raised his eyebrows a little and said, "Do continue."  
  
"Well," started Remus, "It seems that we were not the first ones to find Harry. In fact, he's been acquainted with a member of the order for a number of years now." For the first time in his life, Remus had managed to shock the Headmaster. The headmaster seemed to be thinking for a few moments when he asked, "Who?"  
  
"Mundungus Fletcher. Once I started explaining to him about magic, he said that he might have known a wizard. He told me about a man who went by the name of Fletch who used to do magic tricks for the kids on the streets and give them food and stuff. He said that Fletch had business with some black- market dealers. Plus Harry said something about not stealing from him. We should really try and contact him and try to learn moor about Harry. What do you think?"  
  
"That sounds like a great idea, I will owl him first thing in the morning," said the Headmaster. "Now, how did the rest of the lesson go?"  
  
"Wonderfully", replied Remus. "He's even smarter than James, I can tell. He's already performing at a second year level. If he keeps this up, he should be up to speed in no time."  
  
At this the old man smiled, "Excellent."  
  
Neville, Hermione and Ginny were all sitting close together in the common room the next morning. Harry had just left with Hagrid and Neville had told the two girls that he had something important to tell them.  
  
"What is it Neville, you said you had something to tell us," Ginny questioned.  
  
Neville looked a little nervous but said, "Okay, it's about Harry, I need to know what you think cuz it's really starting to worry me and I don't know what to do about it." Neville paused at this and only continued when Ginny exclaimed, "What is it Neville!"  
  
"Well, you see, last night, I woke up and Harry was screaming out in his sleep. It was really sad. Kind of like a like a scared little kid or something, He kept crying out for his mommy and someone named Maggie, over and over, he kept screaming, 'don't be dead mommy, please don't be dead Maggie'. Did Harry say any thing to either of you about anyone named Maggie?"  
  
Both girls seemed to be thinking as they absently shook there heads, no. After a moment of silence Hermione declared, "Well I don't know what to think of this, except that he is probably traumatized, but that much was obvious. We should just try and let him live a normal life I guess and look out for him while he is here. And Neville, if it happens again, better give him another silencing charm, just incase one of the others wake up and hear him, I'd hate to see what Ron or Seamus would do to taunt him after that."  
  
Harry whooped out in joy as the car dove down another arduous tunnel. He and Hagrid had just arrived at Gringotts bank by use of flue powder. Flue powder did not appear to agree with Harry, for when he came out the other fire place, he was sideways. Never the less it did fascinate him just as much as anything else did these days.  
  
When they had arrived at Gringotts Hagrid had presented a key to someone who had turned out to be a goblin named Griphook. Griphook then led them down a hallway and through a set of doors which led to a gigantic system of tunnels. While Griphook led them over to a car to lead them down to Harry's vault, Hagrid briefly explained to Harry the system of wizarding banking. Hagrid's speech ended though immediately after the car started moving.  
  
After several minutes of plunging deeper and deeper into the underground system of tunnels, Hagrid was looking almost green. Luckily, they had reached Harry's vault soon after and the gigantic man exited the car with relief.  
  
Harry looked to Griphook who was retrieving his key from his pocket. The Goblet walked over to the door on the wall and inserted the small skeleton key into to lock.  
  
To be honest, Harry had been to caught up in everything the last few days to think about the money his parents had left him. Thus he received quite a shock when Griphook opened his vault to reveal vast room filled with heaps of glowing bronze, silver, and gold coins.  
  
"There ya' go 'Array. Told ya' yer parents were well of didn' I", Hagrid said to a dumbstruck Harry.  
  
Harry took a sack from Griphook and filled it with all the coins it would hold. Hagrid said that it would be more than enough to last him a while. Once they were finished they boarded the cart once again and set of up the tunnels.  
  
Two hours latter Hagrid and Harry could be found outside Madam Malkin's robe shop. After the bank, Harry and Hagrid had visited the book store, the apothecary, and several other shops to purchase various items Harry would need. All that was left to get were his robes. Outside the shop Hagrid had asked Harry if it was alright if he went in alone so that he could take care of some business elsewhere. Harry assured him that he would be alright, this place was far less dangerous than where he had spent the last nine years. The only problem here was that his lightning bolt seemed to be a beacon to witches and wizards, both young and old. He had quickly learned that in order to avoid people nearly having heart attacks at the sight of him, it was necessary to keep his hair draped over his face to hide the scar on his forehead. Everyone hear still thought he was dead and he had given quite a few people a scare after leaving the bank.  
  
He walked into the shop and stood near the entrance to wait for assistance. Harry waited for a few moments and decided to go and find someone himself but before he could, a small creature appeared right in front of him with a small pop.  
  
"Harry Potter Sir! Oh we is so happy you is alive, Dobby has been looking for Harry Potter for so long and we finally finds him." Harry took a small step backwards and away from the creature in front of him. Not knowing what to say he timidly replied, "Um... 'ello... Ah... who are ya' exactly."  
  
The little creature beamed with. "Oh Mister Harry Potter Sir is so nice to we house elves. He is so noble. I am Dobby the house elf, at your service sir" he said with a bow so low, that his long nose actually touched the floor.  
  
Harry raised his eyebrow at him, "Ah... hi Dobby... um... so, wha' can I do fer ya."  
  
"Oh no sir, you is not to do anything for Dobby sir. We is here to give Harry Potter good news. Harry Potter is not to be worried about the bad news, no; Mister Harry Potter is not to be troubled, for he is not being hunted. No, you sir is not to be afraid."  
  
"Afraid of wha', o' isn' huntin' me?" Harry asked.  
  
"Me is not being able to say, Dobby has said too much already, now Dobby must slam his ears in the oven door."  
  
Harry raised his eyebrows and said, "uh... you don' got ta do dat. Um... nice ta meet'cha though, and uh, tanks fer da warnin'"  
  
"Harry Potter sir is so kind, you is not needing to thank me, we is so grateful for he is the one who ended the dark times. But we must be going now sir, Dobby is not supposed to be leaving the house. Farewell Harry Potter sir." And with a small pop, Dobby was gone, leaving a confused Harry staring where the elf had stood a moment before with his mouth open.  
  
Dear Mundungus  
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to ask you if you could spare me an afternoon of you time, as I require your assistance.  
  
I don't know if you have heard yet, but Harry Potter has been found. However, the condition in which he was found was not at all well. It appears that Harry has been living alone on the streets ever since he was abandoned by his uncle.  
  
Talking with Harry, he mentioned that he was acquainted with you. I do not know why you would not have told me, If in fact this is true, but I do believe that it may be possible for the two of you to have crossed paths while you were conducting your business.  
  
There is probably a logical reason for you to not inform me, if you did know him, but that is in the past. In the present, however, I believe that there is a possibility that Harry may be mentally disturbed after all that he has suffered. This is why I would greatly appreciate it if you could find time to come to Hogwarts as soon as possible so we can find out what exactly a street kid like Harry might have had to endure. Even if it turns out that you do not know him, any insights that you could offer may help us to determine weather or not Harry may be a danger to himself or others.  
  
I will be expecting you soon, Albus  
  
Dumbledore reread the letter and sealed it with his Hogwarts wax press. As he sent the letter of with his phoenix, he thought to himself, 'Oh Harry, what have I done to you child.'  
  
END OF CHAPTER 5 ------------------------------------------   
  
Well my friends, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it. Luckily, I am in the mood for writing today so I may be updated again as early as Monday morning. Don't forget to Review. Bye  
  
PS Does anyone know how I can make bold and Italics show up on FF.net. If so, let me know.  
  
Review Responses

 **HAZZAGRIFF** : Thanks, Oliver Twist is one of my favorit stories and I also share a fascination with the art of the pickpocket  
  
**Adashek** : Thanks, you're the first person to say my grammar was okay.  
  
**Honeyduck** : Thanks a lot  
**  
(-:** **:** Dully noted  
  
**Shadow Beast1** : Thanks a lot  
  
**Stan** : Good point, keep reading and you will see what becomes of Harry's habits  
  
**Raven Potter Weasley**: Tanks fer da tip  
  
**Rachel A. Prongs** : Thanks  
  
**Micah** : Thanks, I will  
  
**A-man** : Thanks  
  
**Alan** : Thanks buddy  
  
**Shdurrani** : You speak the truth


	6. Accelerated Studying

**Chapter six  
Accelerated Studying  
By Saturday night, Harry could truly say that he was starting to feel that he belonged. He was sitting in the common room in HIS OWN robes playing a card game called exploding snap. He was playing with Fred and George Weasley who were teaching him along the way.  
  
To be honest, he found the actual game to be a bit boring, even with the random explosions. He had never played these types of games when he was younger, even with Jack and Sara. In his childhood, he and his friends would do things like wrestle or race for enjoyment, which was much more enjoyable to him than cards. But never the less, he was having a good time.  
  
Fred and George seemed like the type of people who could make any situation a good time. Playing with them was impossible to not enjoy, regardless of how boring the activity was.  
  
He had only been back from Diagon Alley a few minutes when he had been approached by the two notorious pranksters with an offer to help him get accustomed to the wizarding world a little better. As Harry got to know the family, he realized that Ron must be the oddball in the Weasley family. All the others seemed to be perfectly friendly... well, Percy wasn't exactly friendly, but he wasn't a jerk either.  
  
After a good hour of exploding snap, the twins suggested they go down to dinner and invited Harry to join them.  
  
On there way out of the portrait hole, Harry heard someone approaching behind him. He reflexively spun on his heal to see whom it was but did not succeed, for the second he turned around; he was blinded by a bright white flash.  
  
"Hi, I'm Colin Creevey, I'm a second year. Oh and I'm such a fan of yours, cuss you defeated the dark lord and all. I wanted to get your picture so I could send it to my brother Dennis," said and egger voice. When Harry's vision had cleared he looked up to see a small boy holding a camera. Harry gave the boy an odd look but before he could say anything the boy continued, "Oh, I was so excited when you came hear, I've always wanted to meet you but you were missing. Where were you by the way? How come you didn't come to Hogwarts with the rest of your year? And all those scars, where did you get all those?"  
  
Harry stared at the boy expressionlessly. He was about to sneer at the boy for being nosey but caught himself. He could hear Fred and George snickering at his side. He defiantly did not feel comfortable discussing his past with this stranger.  
  
Harry could not think of anything nice to say at the moment and was thankful when Fred stepped forward and said politely, "Colin, kindly quit badgering the man, it's so ungentlemanly. Now, I do believe we need to be going, good day to you Colin." And with that he turned from the silent Colin, who was still trying to take in Fred's words, and usurer Harry through the door, George following closely.  
  
Latter on that evening, Hermione and Harry were sitting in the common room. Mag was sleeping on the floor after a long day of playing with Hermione, Ginny and Neville (Harry had left her with them while he went to get his school supplies).  
  
Harry was trying to read some more at the moment, but had to do it alone because Hermione was busy with homework. He did not mind however, there were still a lot of people up and he preferred to keep his illiteracy between him and Hermione for the time being as he was a little embarrassed by it.  
  
Suddenly, Hermione stood up. "Harry, do you want to come to the library with me. I don't seem to have all the books I need with me and you haven't been to that part of the castle yet."  
  
Harry smiled and set his potions book down. "All righ', didn' know der was a library."  
  
They walked out of the portrait hole and down the steeps. When they were finally alone in a disserted hallway, Hermione turned to Harry and said, "When we get to the library, I can help you some more with your reading if you want."  
  
"I though' you said ya needed ta ge' some books" Harry asked questioningly.  
  
Hermione smiled at him, "I do, but that should only take a minute. I didn't think you wanted to study reading and writing with all those people around so I thought you might like to come with me. The libraries usually empty on a Saturday night so we should be able to study in peace, if that's all right by you."  
  
Harry smiled at how considerate she was, she reminded him of Sarah a little. "O' course da's all righ'" Harry said joyfully. He paused a moment then spoke again, "Uh, 'Ermione, why are ya bein' so nice ta me, helpin' me ta read an' all? Mos' people would wan' somthin' in return but you don' seem to expect any t'ing."  
  
Hermione blushed a little at his comment. "Well Harry, you seem like a good person to me, and because of that I don't mind helping you. I may not know you that well but I can tell that you're the type of person who stands up for what's right and I admire that" She said sincerely.  
  
Harry did not respond to this but was thinking of how much he admired her. He also thought to himself, 'If she new half the things I've done, she hate me worse then Ron. But... she's a smart girl, just maybe, a girl like her could understand.'  
  
After two hours of reading in the library, Harry and Hermione decided that it was time to head back. They had spent most of the time sitting on the couch together with Harry struggling to read a book and Hermione helping him when needed. The fact that Hermione could be so patient with Harry just added to his admiration of the girl.  
  
As he started to put the books they had been reading on the shelf, Harry turned to Hermione and said, "Tanks so much 'Mione, I'd be los' with ou' ya. I can' believe you spen' so much time on me."  
  
Hermione blushed a little and looked at Harry sweetly. Harry noticed this and asked "What?"  
  
"You're the first person to ever call me 'Mione" she smiled.  
  
"Really?, Well, I didn' actually say it on purpose. Jus' came ou' dat way, sort' a sounds natural, sorry."  
  
"Don't be sorry, I like it," said Hermione, "your right, It does sound a bit more natural when you say it."  
  
Her words seemed to make Harry warm inside, something he had not felt since Sarah died. He didn't think about it much but he did welcome the emotional warmth with a small intake of breath and a soft smile.  
  
Sunday went buy without much event and by Monday mourning, Harry was once again shaking with anticipation. Today was the day he would have his first full day of lesions. After eating breakfast, the Gryffindors would go potions, followed by charms. After charms they would have lunch and then while the rest of the Gryffindors went to Divinations, Harry would meet again with professor Lupin for tutoring.  
  
Despite the warnings his friends had given him, Harry was still eager to get to potions class as soon as possible. He had herd nothing but ill things about the infamous Professor Snape, but was not worried, he'd just keep his head down and hopefully he'd be able to learn from the man in peace.  
  
When they had entered the class room, it was full of talking students that he noted were all Slytherins. He took a seat at a work bench next to Hermione and Neville. Neville had been even quieter than normal that morning.  
  
The rest of the Gryffindors did not show up until a minute before the bell rang. When the bell did ring, the entire class became silent. Seconds latter, a tall greasy haired man strode threw the door. His eyes were almost black and they seemed to make you think of tunnels.  
  
"Silence" he demanded, but need not have as the class seemed to become silent at his mere presence.  
  
He stood behind his desk and picked up a piece of parchment and immediately began to take role.  
  
Snape was in a sour mood the past few days. This was because of the sudden reappearance of the Potter boy. He felt the boy was more trouble than he was worth even before he had laid eyes on him. 'First he goes and practically fakes his bloody death, AND breaks Albus' heart. Then he shows up again out of no where and expects to be educated and given special help just because HE showed up three years too late. And now he's got all the professors practically worshiping him. Well he sure as hell won't get any special treatment from me' Severus said to himself angrily.  
  
Severus would not admit to himself that his hatred for the boy was not because of Harry, but because of his father. He had managed to convince himself over the years that the Potter boy was an arrogant brat just like his father had been, despite the boy's background.  
  
When Snape came to Harry's name, he glared at him and spoke out loudly in a disgusted tone, "Ah, The great uneducated Harry Potter has finally decided to grace us mortals with his presence."  
  
Harry raised his head and met the man's glare. Something no student hade ever dared to do. His classmates couldn't help but admire him little as he stared back into the powerful eyes of the potions master without flinching.  
  
After pausing for a moment, Snape realized that the boy was not going to retort or back down. Holding his glare, the professor spoke, "You should know Potter that although the rest of the staff here seems to worship the ground you walk on, I feel that you are nothing but a nuisance. Your presence here is only disrupting the system. I can assure you that you will receive no special treatment from me."  
  
Naturally, Harry's first reaction would have been to talk back. He suppressed this urge however and just continued to stare back at the Man, hoping the subject would be dropped. Snape did not yet seem to be satisfied however. "Well?" he demanded angrily, expecting Harry to have something to say as his father would have.  
  
Harry now realized that for some reason, the man was just trying to set him off. In response to Snape's demand for a comment, Harry replied calmly, "well I 'm glad we established tha'."  
  
Snape sneered at him before continuing with the role. The rest of the lesson went on with Snape randomly scolding unlucky Gryffindors for their foolishness and rewarding Slytherins for nothing at all. By the end of the class Harry decided that when his friends said that Snape was a cold hearted bastard, it had been an understatement. It was quite a relief to finally hear the bell ring.  
  
Charms class was a different storey all together. Professor Flitwick had spent the hour, going around the class and actually helping the students when they had problems and complemented them when they were successful.  
  
They were working on the freezing charm that day. Few students were successful but to every ones surprise, Harry had been one of those few, along with Hermione of course. Neville on the other hand had not only failed to get the charm right, but he accidentally blew up the apple he had been practicing on. This had caused Ron and the others to laugh hysterically but they quickly shut up at the site of Harry's glare.  
  
When people saw Harry's glare, they did not see the calm and cool student he had been acting like the last few days. Instead they seemed to see the insane street kid with nothing to loose except his freedom. And that side of Harry was enough to make anyone shake in fear, especially Hermione. But Hermione's fear was not of Harry, but for Harry. She had bonded with him over the last couple days and only wanted him to be at peace. However, she feared that Harry's old habits and memories would get in the way.  
  
Harry's lesson with Remus that afternoon was just as great as the last one. He had spent the lesson teaching Harry the theory behind most transfigurations that day and Harry was successful with all the exercises Remus put him through.  
  
After the session with Remus, Harry walked up to the common room and sat down on a couch to make a start on his homework. This was particularly difficult as he could barely read any of it. It would take him forever but he really didn't mind. He thought of how grateful he was of Hermione and realized just how important reading would be.  
  
Just then Hermione and Neville walked through the portrait hole. Neville was looking normal but Hermione seemed to be aggravated about something.  
  
"Hay guy's, wa's da mat'er 'Mione?" Harry asked, feeling worried for his new friend.  
  
'Mione sat down next to them and said in a frustrated voice, "That old fraud Trelawny, she doesn't know what the heck she's talking about. I swear I'm going to drop that class soon. But oh well, how'd it go with Professor Lupin."  
  
Harry told them all about his lesson with Remus. Afterwards they went down to meet Ginny at dinner.  
  
Sirius Black sighed in relief when he saw Hogwarts castle for the first time in over twelve years. He had traveled most of the distance as a stowaway on a muggle train to a town about fifty kilometers south of the school and had practically ran the rest of the way, determined to see his Godson who he had become so attached to over the last few months. And also to seek his revenge on the traitor he had once called his friend.  
  
Hiding in the forest, Sirius began to work out what to do about Remus. His disguise was useless with him around. Especially if he had informed Dumbledore.  
  
It took all Sirius' will power not to walk into the school right then and there just to check on Harry. He new that if he were sighted, he would be given the kiss immediately, but part of him thought it would be worth it if he could just see Harry.  
  
He was worried about Harry now almost as much as he was when Harry was on the streets, having to fight and steel for survival. He no longer feared for Harry's physical safety, but for his mental state. He had seen on more than one occasion how disturbed Harry really was. He could not lie to himself, Harry was not fit for going to a civilized school and it scared him to think of what Harry would do if he felt trapped. 'But Remus is there,' he thought, 'He's smart, he'll help him along the way so he can adapt better. I hope he makes some friends that can help him too.' But Sirius did not expect any kid in Hogwarts to be able to accept Harry, regardless of his fame.  
  
Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Neville all sat in the library finishing there homework. Actually Hermione was finished with hers already and was helping Harry with his potions assignment.  
  
When they were done, the four of them decided to show Harry the grounds around Hogwarts. They would need to be back by dark but that was at least an hour. Once they were outside in the cool winter air Hermione, Ginny and Neville pulled there cloaks tight around them to keep warm. Harry however was used to being colder than this and just left his cloak draped loosly over his shoulders.  
  
For the next twenty minutes, the four wandered around looking at the green house and the quidditch pitch. When they got to the lake Mag, who had been trotting along side them, suddenly took off towards the forest.  
  
"Mag!, Harry yelled, "Ge' back 'ear!" But Mag kept on towards the forest.  
  
Seeing that Mag was not coming back, Harry took of after her, with the others following behind.  
  
Luckily, Mag did not go into the forest. She stopped at the edge and sat down obediently.  
  
"Wha' da hell ar' you doin' girl?" Harry said when he reached her. Suddenly Harry heard a loud bark, but it was not from Mag.  
  
Looking up he saw that it had come from the large black dog who was now bounding towards him.  
  
"****JACK**!", Harry cried at the sight of his friend. The dog eagerly jumped up on Harry's chest and began licking his face.  
  
When the others caught up they were a little surprised and yet a little confused as to why Harry would be hugging this stray dog. They all stood by for a moment before Ginny finally spoke "Um, Harry, do you know that dog?"  
  
Harry smiled up at them and said "Yup, He use' ta live with me an' Mag on da streets. Good dog actually, kind' a like Meg a little but e' is a bi' strange a' times. E's really smart though. I wander how e' foun' me hear."  
  
All the others came over to pet Jack. After a while Hermione exclaimed, "Oh no! We better get back soon before curfew. We've only got a few minutes." All the others were a bit surprised at how fast the time had gone by and they all began to make there way up to the castle with both dogs running along side. When they got to the door though, Jack seemed to be a bit nervous.  
  
"What's his problem?" Ginny asked.  
  
"I don' know, told ya 'e was strange. Jack come on, don' ya wan' a go an ge' warm?"  
  
Jack walked up to Harry and apologetically gave him an affectionate lick. Harry looked at the dog a bit confused but also a bit knowingly. Suddenly, Jack turned his tail and ran off back into the forest.  
  
"Jack!" Harry called after him, but the dog did not turn back.  
  
"'E did dat jus' a few days ago too, righ' before you guys foun' me. Don' know wha' da hells gotten in'ta him," Harry said disappointedly.  
  
The others were a little confused by the dog's behavior also. Without saying anything, the Gryffindors walked into the castle and back up to there common room.  
  
END OF CHAPTER  
  
A/N That's it. I know it's a bit short but I didn't want to add anything on to it because this was a good stopping point. In the next chapter I plan to introduce Fletcher and maybe some Quidditch. I will either update again tomorrow or Monday.  
  
Thank you to all my reviewers. It helps a lot.  
  
DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO MAKE BOLD AND ITALICS  
SHOW UP ON FF.NET. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU DO.


	7. Revealing the Problems

Hi all.  Sorry for the lateness of this chapter.  My finals are getting in the way, but they'll be done soon.  Enjoy the chapter.

(AN) This chapter contains some very graphic child abuse, including rape.  Those who are offended by such things should not read the first part of the chapter.  You have been warned.

**Chapter 7**

**Revealing the Problems**

Harry lay in his bed with his eyes wide open.  It was well past midnight but he had not even begun feel drowsy.  His thoughts of Jack were keeping him awake.

Harry had come to know Jacks ways over the past few months, but he never could figure the dog out.  It was like Jack wasn't even a dog at all and had some form of logical thought that caused him do things like run away unexpectedly and give Harry looks that were never shared between a dog and a human.

It was Jacks facial expressions that had Harry really confused.  Sometimes Jack would give Harry a look that was definitely more human than dog, such as the look the two shared just before Jack fled from the factory in London a few days ago.  It was almost like Jack had been actually serious about something, not just instinctive like most dogs normally were.

He new he was not going to sleep any time soon, so he got up and decided to give his Defense against the Dark Arts book a go.  After he had retrieved his book from his new trunk, Harry exited the snore filled room and made his way down to the deathly silent common room.

He went over to one of the couches near the smoldering fire and picked up a lamp from a nearby table which he lit with his wand (something Remus had taught him).

Lying on the couch, Harry began the slow and frustrating process of piecing letters and words together and figuring out their meaning.  He did not even notice as he began to feel drowsy, but he kept on reading until eventually, the book fell to the floor and he drifted off to sleep.

Harry flinched as he heard his uncle's slurred voice announcing his arrival home from where ever it was that he had been.

The three and a half year old Harry stood in front of the kitchen sink drying the dishes.  He hoped to god that his uncle would go directly up the stairs and not come in the kitchen.  His hope was crushed however when he heard his uncle's pounding footsteps coming down the hall towards the kitchen. 

When the door opened, Harry tried his best to stair strait ahead and act normally to avoid his uncle's attention.  But it was all in vain. 

Vernon sat down at the kitchen table and took a swig of vodka.  Harry was so scared of his uncle that he began to shiver in fear at the smell of the vodka.

**"DON'T YOU GREET YOUR UNCLE WHEN HE ENTERS THE BLOODY ROOM BOY?"** Vernon boomed, making Harry jump. 

"'M s-sorry uncle," Harry whimpered.

**"SHUT UP, YOU WORTHLESS FREAK!  STOP CRYING!**  I raised you, gave you food, put a roof over your head, and you still don't show me any respect.  You're a worthless you little fuck, just like your father and your whore of a mother, you pathetic little shit.  **STOP CRYING DAMN IT!"** Vernon Bellowed.  His last statement was so loud that Harry accidentally dropped the plat he was holding.  Vernon stared at the shattered plate and then looked back up at Harry Murderously.

Harry began to sputter out apologies but Vernon ignored them.  "You're going to pay for that boy.  _Oh, I'm going to make you wish you had never been born!" _he said threw clenched teeth as he began to advance towards Harry.

The small boy's knees gave out as his fuming uncle grabbed him by the hair and began to drag him out into the hall. 

As they passed the den, Harry glimpsed his aunt lying unconscious on the couch in her underwear, as white as chalk.  There was a heroin syringe lying on the floor next to her and a small drop of blood could be seen on her fore arm.  Harry hated when his aunt and uncle did drugs, it made them even scarier than normal.

Vernon continued to drag him roughly down the hall and up the stairs to the guest bedroom, drinking his liquor as he went.  When they got there, Vernon threw Harry's trembling body onto the bed.

"Uncle, p-p-please, I'm s-so s-sorry, it was an accident," Harry whimpered as his uncle began to advance towards him.  "I d-didn' mean it, p-please.  I-I'll be a good boy, I prom—"

_CRACK!_

****

Harry was cut off by the back of his uncle's hand slapping him hard across the face.  **"SHUT IT, (**_CRACK**!)**_** YOU UNGREATFUL LITTLE BITCH _(_**_CRACK**!)**_**!" **Vernon yelled as he continued to smack Harry senseless.**  "I FEED YOU (**_CRACK**!)**_**, I PUT CLOTHES ON YOUR BACK _(_**_CRACK**!), **_**I PUT A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD _(_**_CRACK**!), **_**I RAISED YOU DAMN IT, AND ALL YOU DO IN RETURN IS RUIN MY FUCKING LIFE (**_CRACK**!)**_**! I SHOULD HAVE THROWN YOU OUT WITH THE GARBAGE THE DAY YOU SHOWED UP YOU FUCKING FAGAT!  STOP (**_CRACK**!),**_** CRYING (**_CRACK**!). **_** YOU FILTHY (**_CRACK**!)**_**, LITTLE (**_CRACK**!)**_**, WHORE (**_CRACK**!)**_**!"**

When Vernon finished screaming, he grabbed Harry by his neck and threw him into the wall behind the bed.

"TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF" he yelled at the boy, taking another swig of vodka.

'oh no' thought Harry, 'no… not again, not that!'

Vernon was not pleased by Harry's hesitation.  He dragged Harry into the middle of the bed and pined him down with his knees.  He then reached down and grabbed a handful of the shivering boy's baggy shirt.  Harry let out a high scream as his shirt was painfully torn off his broken body.

Vernon growled at the boys scream.  He wadded up Harry's torn shirt and forcefully jammed it into his mouth.  **"BE QUIET!"** he yelled, **"YOU'LL BE A GOOD LITTLE WHORE AND NOT MAKE A SOUND (**_CRACK!**)**_**!"**

The next thing Harry new, his pants were roughly jerked from his scrawny legs and he lay there naked.  The crying boy whimpered into his gag as his uncle violently rolled him onto his stomach.  He was shaking uncontrollably now.  He new what was coming and all he wanted at the moment was to die.  But death never came.  He bit down onto his gag as his uncle tore into him.  To Harry, this was the worst thing there was.  As his uncle began to move in and out of him, Harry became overwhelmed with nausea.  He chocked when he smelt the Vodka on his uncles breath and dug his fingers into the mattress because of the pain of his flesh tearing.  

This torture went on for what seemed like a life time to Harry.  Just before he was about to pass out, he felt his uncle's warm, disgusting fluids release inside him. 

Harry could not keep down the new wave of nausea that overtook him as Vernon ejaculated inside him.  But when he did throw-up, the gag in his mouth caused him to chock on his own vomit.  Panic overtook him as he tried desperately to get the gag out so he could breathe.  He began trashing around violently in an attempt to get the gag out and to taste air again, but it only made things worse. 

Vernon did not like his insane thrashing and brought his fist down hard on the boys head.  Harry lay there nearly unconscious, any moment now he would pass out from alack of oxygen and maybe, he would not wake up again.  He began to wonder if he even wanted to live anymore, but he was drawn out of his thoughts by a distant, but forceful voice.

**"HARRY! WAKE UP!"**

Harry's eyes snapped open.  He could feel someone holding him loosely around his shoulders.  Without thinking, Harry instinctively shot his hand out and into the person's chest, shoving them forcefully to the other end of the couch.  The shivering boy then quickly backed away in fear and curled up protectively on the other end of the couch. 

After a moment Harry began to get his wits back.  'It was just a dream' he thought, sighing in relief, 'But, if that was a dream… then who did I just attack.'

Harry looked up to see a shocked looking girl sitting on the other end of the couch.

"H-… Harry, I.  I'm sorry I startle you, I was just trying to wake you up" A feminine voice said softly.

"M-Mione, Is dat you, I…, I'm so sorry, you…, you scared me.  'R you All righ'?" Harry asked quietly as he began to loosen up.

"Oh, I'm all right" Mione said as she moved to sit closer to Harry.  "But you, are you okay, I came down hear because I couldn't sleep and wanted to do some homework but when I came down you were hear on the couch screaming.  I just came over to try and wake you up.  I didn't mean to scare you"

Harry stiffened a little when Mione sat down next to him and put a comforting arm around him.  As she continued to hold him to her, he began to loosen up a bit and spoke again softly, "I din' mean to hit you like dat, I… when I woke up… I, I tough' you were…, um… never mind, I jus' spook easily when I'm asleep.  I'm sorry."

"It's okay Harry, I'm fine," she said.  "It isn't your fault; I probably should have seen that coming.  Do you want to tell me what you were dreaming about?"

Harry was actually starting to relax at the sound of her peaceful voice.  "Uh, no, it's okay, jus' a night mare.  How come you couldn' sleep?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well, actually, I was thinking about you, and… your dreams." She said a bit cautiously.

Harry looked down at her expressionlessly and asked, "How'd ya know I 'ave dreams a' night?"

"Well," Mione said turning a little to face Harry, "The other night, Neville told us that he woke up and you were… screaming… in your sleep."

"Oh" Harry said, mentally kicking himself for letting the others find out about his pain.  He knew that they knew he was abused but did not want to them to think it had mentally damaged him.  Even he wasn't sure if it had or not, but to be honest, he never really thought about his mental stability too much.

After a short moment, Mione seemed to notice that he was troubled.  "Harry, its okay, Neville said that he put a silencing charm around your bed so none of the others would hear.  And we won't let anyone know if you don't want to."

Harry smiled at her kindness.  It was so comforting to him.  He looked back at her and said quietly, "t'anks Mione, you guys 'r da best t'ing I go' with dis new life o mine, I can' believe my luck."

Hermione smiled warmly at him and said, "Thank you Harry.  But really, we like having you around too.  Your such a nice boy, you disserve good friends."

With Hermione's words, Harry forgot all about his night mare.  He just smiled appreciatively at her and they both leaned back into the couch.  Harry unconsciously put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. 

Upon realizing what he had just done, Harry became a little fearful of how Mione would take it.  She did not seem to mind however.  She lovingly slid her arm around Harry's waist and rested her head on his shoulder. 

"Mione?" Harry asked after a few minutes of peaceful silence.

"Yeah?" she replied softly, raising her head a little to face him. 

"Wha' happens when school lets out in da summer?" he asked, not sure he wanted to bring it up at the moment.

"Well, all the students go home to there famil-…  Oh, um well most people go home, but I don't know what will happen to you," She replied sadly.

Harry sighed a little and said, "Jus' wonderin', I guess I'll jus' ask Remus.  Do ya tink they'll let me stay 'ere over da summer?"

"U'm, I don't think so, my mom told me that all the teachers usually go home over the break.  But I'm sure Dumbledore will find you somewhere to go.  Maybe a foster home or an orphanage," she told him, hoping he liked the idea.

"I aint goin' to no orphanage, I know people who ran away from 'em.  Said they 'ad no freedom, it's like a prison run' by dem damn child services people.  I'd rather live on da streets" Harry scowled.

Hermione was taken back by his reply and asked, "Why don't you like child services workers, I thought they just try to help kids?"

"Na," Harry said slightly angrily, "all dey do is bring kids in off da streets an then stick em in an orphanage, or else dey put ya in a family of a bunch o' strangers, who act like dey love ya, but den get rid of ya as soon as they have kids of there own r' somthin'.  My bes' friend Jack use ta have his own family, but den they took 'im away jus' cuz his da' didn' 'ave enough money ta feed im righ', or cloth 'im.  They took 'im ta one 'o dem orphanages in London were dey aint go' no rights or nothin'.  But den when Jack was abou' six or seven, he ran away from der.  He tried to find his father but he had gon' to prison fer tryin' ta boost cars so he could ge' some money so he could have his boy back.  Das when me an Sarah found 'im, we brought 'im back ta Ethan and he told us to teach him how ta steal wallets an stuff."

Hermione hadn't thought much about how Harry had survived on the street and she didn't even consider that he might be a thief.  "You were a thief?" she asked, trying not to sound offensive.  She didn't want to judge Harry for being a criminal. 

"Uh, yeah.  But I don' kneed ta steal no more, I- I got money from my parents now an' I get all da food I wan' 'ere.  Do you… you know tha' I won' steal from no one here, righ'?  I never steal anyway unless I have to." Harry said, hopping she didn't look down on him for his semi-just crimes.

Hermione, realizing that Harry was worried about her opinion, squeezed his waist a little and said, "Of course I know you won't steal anything here.  And I won't ever think less of you for any thing you did on the streets.  I know that you probably had to do a lot of things that are traditionally immoral to survive and it's not my place to Judge you." 

Harry was relieved by Mione's reply.  He smiled gratefully at her and they both settled back into the couch.

"Who are Jack, Sarah and Ethan?" Hermione asked, hopping that the question wouldn't cause Harry any more distress. 

Harry did not appear to be troubled by the question but Hermione could feel him tense up a bit before answering.  "Um, Jack and Sarah were my two bes' friends, we pretty much did everythin' together.  But a few years ago, Jack jus' disappeared, never saw 'im again.  An Sarah died of fros' bite a little while after Jack was gone.  Ethan was kind'a like da leader of our gang.  He's da one da' took me in after my uncle dumped me.  He taugh' me how ta steal an' stuff.  But…ah, he died too.  'Bout three years ago."

Hermione felt very sorry too hear about Harry's losses.  The boy couldn't seem to get a break.

"Oh Harry, that's terrible, I'm so sorry," she whispered, holding him close.

"S' alright Mione, I got over it," Harry lied.

They continued to sit peacefully in each others arms for quite a while.  Neither wanted to separate.

But because the they both new that if they were found in this position, it would arouse unwanted assumptions.

With this thought in mind, Harry raised his head a little and looked at her.  Her eyes were closed but because of her firm hold around his waste, he didn't think she was asleep.  "Hermione?" he asked softly.

"Hmm", she replied with her eyes still shut.

"I's getin' early, don' ya t'ink we should go up ta bed before people start coming down?" Harry reluctantly asked.

Hermione seemed half asleep in her reply, "I suppose."

Harry helped her to stand and they both stood together for a moment till Hermione pulled him into a tight hug.

Harry was caught off guard by this and tensed up quite a bit.  It had been a long time since anyone had hugged him; such things had become a distant memory and all this affection was making him feel slightly uneasy.  But her embrace was so comforting that he allowed himself to relax after a moment and hug her back.

"Harry," she whispered in his hear, "You know that you can tell me anything, anything at all and I wont betray you.  You're a good person Harry and you disserve so much more."

Harry felt extremely emotional at her statement.  He kept his emotions hidden out of second nature though and said "I couldn' ask fer more Mione."

Hermione smiled into his shoulder and pulled back.  "Good night Harry, I'll see you at breakfast."

As she turned and walked towards the stairs leading to the girls dorm, Harry called out softly, "night Mione", and then climbed the stairs to his own bed where he curled up with Mag once again and fell asleep.

Remus stared blankly at the colorful bird perched on the window.  Normally, being in the presence of such a beautiful and powerful animal would have driven all else from his mind.  But today, the only thing on his mind was Mundungus and Harry.

Last night, Albus had received a positive reply from the man, agreeing to meet with him and talk about Harry.  In the letter, Mundungus had said that he was sure he had never known any Harry Potter, but he also informed them that street kids, especially gang members, didn't always go by there real name. 

To Remus' delight, the headmaster had asked him and Prof. McGonagall to attend there meeting.  He assumed that the Deputy Headmistress had been asked to come because she was the heads of the boys house. 

Remus continued to star blankly at the bird and almost jumped when he herd the door to the office swing open.  The headmaster and Headmistress walked into the door.  Albus looked his like his usual twinkling self, but Professor McGonagall seemed to be nothing but annoyed.

"Albus, I still do not see why we are meeting with... him if he doesn't even know the boy.  And even if he did, I doubt the drunk could remember" the stern witch asked.

"Good morning Remus, thank you for coming.  Well Minerva, I do believe that Mundungus and Harry could possibly have met but if not than there is still no harm done.  Remus, did you get the photograph from Poppy."

"Yes sir," Remus replied.  Luckily, Madam Pomfrey had taken a picture of Harry before she began to heal him too keep in his medical record.  Remus handed the envelope with the picture of a sleeping Harry to Albus.  "When do you expect him to arrive sir?" Lupin asked, trying not to sound to anxous.

"Well I believe he will be arriving in abo-," Albus was cut off as a green flame began to swirl in the fire.  "Now" the Headmaster finished.

A moment later a tall, raggedy looking man stepped out of the fire.  "Goo' mournin' all, nice ta be back."

Remus and Albus stood to greet there old friend but Professor McGonagall merely nodded her greeting.  Albus gave her a small frown but it was ignored otherwise.  "Now my friends, perhaps we should all get comfortable" the old wizard said before waving his wand in the air, making two additional chars appear in front of the fire. 

They all sat down and Mundungus said, "Now, Albus, what's this about me knowin' the _boy who lived_." 

Albus handed him the envelope containing Harry's picture and replied, "Well Mundungus, I was hopping you could explain.  Here is a photograph of him taken by Madam Pomfrey a few days ago.  Do you recognize him?  He did say it had been a while since you two had seen each other."

 Mundungus took the photograph of Harry out of the envelope and stared at it and seemed to be thinking rather hard.  After a minute or two he looked up with a smile.

"Aye, I think I jus' might know who he is" he said cheerfully.

Professor McGonagall, who had remained silent thus far, then spoke up in an irritated manner, "We already know who he is, what we need to know what you know _about_ him!"

Albus gave her a stern look and said "_Minerva_," warningly before he turned back to Mundungus.  He smiled at him and said "Well Mundungus, could you tell us anything you know about him?  As I said in my letter, it is important that we learn about Harry's past if we are going to try and help him.  …If he does need help that is"

Mundungus looked back down at the photo and spoke, "Well, I aint seen the kid in a couple o' years, but I'm almost positive that that's Raven."

The others in the room looked at him questioningly.  "Raven?" Remus asked.

"Aye, Raven," the man answered, "I never asked 'im what 'is real name was, but everybody just called him raven because o' dat wild black hair 'es got.  And ah, in answer to your question of weather or not he's in need of some mental help, I'd ah… have ta say that 'e migh' unfortunatly." 

The others frowned as he finished.  "Go on," Albus insisted.

Mundungus looked up at them and stated, "Well, ya got ta understand that life on da streets is obviously quite a bit rougher than normal life, especially fer Raven.  I guess I've known 'im since he was abou'… five or six I'd say.  He used ta run with this gang o' thieves and pickpockets who called them selves the Foxes.  They was a rough bunch but in general, they was nice kids.  Now, I know you think tha' a gang of thieves is a terrible thing to be apart of.  But it aint really, it's jus' a way of life fer tha street kids.  And ta be honest, you couldn' find a better bunch o' kids than the foxes fer Harry to grow up with.   There some o' the best fighters and pickpockets around but they still have a good understandin' of write an' wrong.  You see, the leader o' the gang was a kid named Ethan.  'E's da one that took little Raven in when 'e was all alone I think.  And he was a good boy if I ever saw one.  Kind'a like you Remus.  Any way, Ethan made sure that the kids in tha gang only stole when necessary and never started fights an stuff like that.  'E was a great kid, and Raven looked up to him like a big brother.  There was also Maggie, she was about… twelve or so when Raven first came into the gang.  And she was like a mother to 'im.  You wouldn' believe how much he loved 'er.  I gues she was the closest thing to a real family he ever had.  And Maggie was a gentle girl.  Full o' love she was.  So you see, Harry got brought up by two of the most wonderful people around.  Even though they were both only kids themselves at the time, you grow up fast on the streets and they were both more mature than any twelve an' thirteen year olds you could find hear, I guarantee you that."

Mundungus finished and they all seemed to be thinking threw what he said.  Remus was the next to speak.  "So… Harry did have a bit of positive influence in his life.  But how does that make him mentally troubled?"

Mundungus looked down sadly and answered, "Well, that alone isn' what made him the way 'e is.  A lot of other things come in ta play in the story o' Harry 'Raven' Potter.  I guess I should star' at the beginnin'.  An I don' know all of what happened to him, but I do hear a lot o' things from the other kids on the street, so ill jus' tell you wha' I know, okay.  Now, Raven joined up with the foxes after he had only been on the streets a few weeks, which is good cuz the streets can eat you alive if you don' know how to take care o' your self.  So after he joined the gang, the other kids taught 'im how ta steal an' fight an' stuff.  There wasn't any more than ten or so kids in the gang an' they all got along well.  I remember there were two kids, Jack an' Sarah, an' they were Raven's best friends.  I tell ya, them three were inseparable, and they were a dangerous trio too if ya ever caused trouble with 'em.  So you could say Harry had imself a nice little family.  And I would come around from time ta time and give 'em some food and what not.  Come ta think of it, I used ta do little magic tricks fer dem kids.  Used ta have 'em all stumped, except fer Raven, he never bought it.  But anyway, thing went pretty good for little Raven up until he was abou' eight or nine.  Apparently, Maggie didn' come back one night and no one knew were to find her.  So all the kids went out ta look for her the next day.  And it was Harry who found her in the end.  Now, you got ta know that Maggie meant the world to Raven.  Everyone on the streets knew that if they touched Maggie, they'd have Raven to deal with.  An eight year old doesn't seem too intimidatin' to you but believe me, you give Raven a knife and then try an' fight 'im, then you'd be lucky to escape with your life.  In fact ever since Raven was about seven or so he had the reputation of being one o' the deadliest kids in London.  But anyway, Harry could have called Maggie his mother, and she certainly considered him a son.  So when Harry found her… it a, ah how do I say this, it might 'ave done a number on his sanity.  Apparently, she had been raped and beaten and then left fer dead by some one.  I wasn' in town at the time, but I hear it was one o' the most gruesome things you ever saw.  Raven never was the same after that.  But that wasn't the last tragedy he encountered.  A few years latter, his friend Jack just disappeared.  No one knows exactly what happened to him, but it sure broke Raven and Sarah's heart.  And still that wasn' the end of his suffering.  That same winter, Sarah got frost bite and died from poisoning before they could help her.  Most say that was when Raven finally did go Mad.  But others say it happened a few months latter.  You see, all the foxes had had bad luck over the years and there were only four of them left by now.  Jus' Ethan, Raven, and two other kids named Zack and Mel.  Zack was a good kid, kind of quiet.  But Mel was a different story.  He was a little brat if you ask me.  But anyway, the four o' them were spendin' the winter with another gang and one morning, they were attacked by a rival gang outside there shelter.  I hear there was a great bloody battle, few survived.  I know Zack was killed but what was truly terrible was that Mel, the little shit, stabbed Ethan in the back as soon as he saw he was on the loosin' side.  Killed 'im too.  I guess Mel didn' count on Raven to be watchin'.  Seein' Mel stab Ethan must o' sent Raven over the edge.  It probably didn' take much effoert, but I hear Raven cut open Mel's thought righ' there in the middle o' the battle.  So now Raven had literally nothing left once again.  I never saw him again but word on the streets is that he was livin' all alone somewere.  Jus' mindin' his own business.  The kids one amazing pickpocket so I'm sure he could take care o' 'im self.  But he made a lot o' enemies on the streets.  Wasn' uncomin' fer a kid ta try an' kill 'im if they ever got the chance.  Mos'ly cocky punks who wanted to be known as the one who killed Raven, the fastest kid there is.  But appearently he's still alive so he must 'av never lost to any one.  Cuz when street kids fight, they're fightin' fer keeps."

By the time Mundungus was finished, the other three all wore expressions of sorrow.  Surprisingly, it was Professor McGonagall who finally broke the silence.  "So," she said, much more reserved than before, "You mean to tell us that Harry, or Raven, has had litterly nothing but suffering all his life.  And on top of that, is a thieve, _and _a murderer."

"Well," Mundungus began, "I wouldn' call it murder, cuz you got ta understand, Harry never killed unless he had to.  And yes he is quite da thief and has been threw more than jus' abou' anyone.  But he wasn' always sufferin'!  Believe it or not, I can remember a time when 'e was happy, with Maggie and Jack and Sarah."

At his statement, she broke down into tears and began to mutter something about Lily and James.  Remus was just staring teary eyed out the window, not making a sound.

Albus looked very troubled but put a comforting hand on Minerva's shoulder and said to Mundungus, "Thank you Mundungus, you have been very helpful."

Mundungus nodded to the old man and rose from his seat as all the others had begun to do.  Mundungus stopped after he had risen and turned to look at the headmaster.  "Um, Professor, Sir.  You ah… do ya think maybe I could see 'im?  Ya know, jus' ta say 'ello.  I aint seen 'im in so long.  I kind'a would like ta see him an'… jus' make sure he's doin' okay", he asked.

Albus looked him in the eye and said to the disappointment of Professor McGonagall, "Of course Mundungus, I believe that Remus will be giving him private lesions latter, if its okay with Remus, perhaps you could see him before they begin."

Remus nodded to them saying it was okay and turned back to the window.  Mundungus smiled widely and said "Thank you, It'll be great ta see the kid again."

Albus smiled at him and said, "Your welcome Mundungus, thank you for coming, you truly have been a great help."

Mundungus replied, "I'm happy ta help, especially where Raven's concerned.  Well, I mus' be off now, I'll come back this afternoon Remus."

Remus nodded to him again and Mundungus disappeared into the fire.

"Well," Albus said with an unusual lack of twinkle, "That was very informative.  I'm not sure what I was expecting but it certainly wasn't that."

"W-hat are we going to do?" Minerva sobbed.

Albus seemed deep in thought.  The other two in the room had never seen him have to think this much about anything.  He usually had a quick solution, or at least some cryptic advice on what to do immediately after the problem was stated.  But now the man looked almost as lost as they did, and it made them feel helpless.  After a couple minutes, he broke the tense silence and said in an emotionless voice, "I do believe it would be wise for us to not bring any of this up to him, not yet anyways.  From what Mundungus told us, it seams that he is not a boy who would deliberately hurt anyone.  So that at least is good.  But I still feel it would be wise to keep a close eye on him, at least till we are sure he is safe.  Remus, if you think you can, try and talk to him, let him know that we can get him a psychiatrist, or any other kind of help he may need."

END OF CHAPTER

(A/N)  Hello, hope you enjoyed that.  I have my finals all this week so I should hopefully update again in about a week or so.  I will be updating more often over the summer than I have been so maybe ill have Vol. I finished by about July or August.  I also wanted to add that if any of you have read any good street Harry stories, or H/Hr stories, let me know so I can check them out.  I have my replies to some of the reviews posted below.

**Nathalia**** Potter**:  Thanks for telling me, I will be fixing that soon

**Raven Potter Weasley**:  Good advice

**Stan:**  You make an interesting point, but Harry is special and very strong mentally.

**Hazzagriff****:**  That is a good story, keep reading and eventually you'll see more.

**Sun's Fire**:  Glad you think so

**Mockingbirdflyaway****:**  Thanks a lot

**Jj****:**  Yes, Harry's speech will gradually improve over time

**The Vampire Story Hunter:**  Thanks buddy, I like you.

**Mortimor**** J. Windsor**:  Thanks so much


	8. Attention

**Chapter 8**

**Attention**

Harry sat in the front row of his first Transfiguration class, flanked by Hermione and Neville.  The bell had rung two minutes ago and oddly enough, the usually punctual Professor McGonagall had still not arrived. 

They only had to wait a few more minutes however before the door to the classroom swung open and Professor McGonagall strode briskly to the front of the room.  The chatter in the class room died down immediately and only the most observant one in the class noticed her slightly red eyes and tear stained face.  Despite Harry's curiosity as to what had upset the professor so much, he kept it to himself.

After McGonagall was seated at the front of the class she seemed to be thinking for several minutes, just staring of into space.  Some in the class nearly jumped when she finally did speak in a dead and tired voice, "open your text books to page three hundred and seventy."

Harry leaned down to pick up his enormous text book but looked up halfway through to catch his professor looking at him with an expression that was part pitying, part sad and part unreadable.  The old woman quickly averted her eyes as the former thief gazed back at her.  She then proceeded to teach the class as usual, though she was much less enthusiastic than normal. 

By the end of the class Harry and Hermione were once again amongst the few who had been able to master the hue switching spell they had been practicing during the period. 

After class Harry headed down to lunch with his friends having completely forgotten the professor's odd behavior at the beginning of class.

After lunch Harry and Hermione were walking through the entrance hall.

Hermione was on her way to arithmancy class and Harry was on his way to his lesions with Remus.  But they both stopped when the doors to the great hall burst open and a short, stocky man sporting a truly horrible bowler hat strode into the hall followed by several others, some of whom were camera men and news reporters. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry caught sight of the headmaster coming down the stairs to the right. 

"Albus," the unknown man said, "Is it true, if so why did you not inform me?  As Minister of Magic it is my obligation to be informed of such important maters as this."

The headmaster replied in a slightly cold voice, "Maters such as what Cornelius?"

The minister was quite annoyed by his response and replied, "I'm talking about Harry Potter.  Now, where is the boy, we have many things to discus with the boy, and you and I need to talk too Dumbledore, about the boy.  Now where is he."

Upon realizing what this group of people were here for, Harry began to back away towards the exit.  He wasn't entirely sure what this groups intentions were but he knew that they would be even worse then the annoying kids who kept gapping at him in the halls and whispering whenever he passed.

As inconspicuously as possible, Harrt continued to go on his way hopping that no one had seen him.  But unfortunately, someone had.

"There's Potter, Right there!" a voice from somewhere in the crowd yelled.

Harry could tell that that voice had come from Malfoy, so he just kept walking, not wanting to give him any satisfaction.  But as luck would have it, Colin Creevey just happened to be standing nearby.

"Harry, why aren't you stopping?  Harry, the minister needs to see you," the small boy squeaked. 

By now nearly every one was looking at Harry.  He felt Hermione place a comforting hand on his shoulder from behind him but it did not stop him from being irritated. 

"Where, who is Harry Potter?!?" the minister said looking quite confused.  It was easy to tell who all the people were staring at but the man clearly did not expect the boy who lived to be such a rough looking boy.

"Aye, dat 'd be me," the green eyed boy said slowly.  Hermione noticed that that he had used the same distrusting voice he used when they had first met him in the factory days before.

The minister seemed to take a minute to take in Harry's appearance.  His hair was covering his face almost completely as it usually did so all the man could see was the two piercing green eyes which always seemed to shine through his thick, black curtain.

After a moment's hesitation, Fudge strode forward towards the boy, his companions in his wake.  "Harry my boy," the man said, "It is great to have you back, I am sure you…."

"Who are ya?" Harry interrupted.  He knew exactly who the man was by now but he already didn't like him.  And the low growl coming from his dog proved his feelings to be just.

The minister looked shocked at his question.  "Me!  Why, I an Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic.  Surely you must have known that.  Don't you read the Prophet boy?"

"Da what?" Harry asked.  At his question, the minister and his companions began to laugh as if he had just made a fool of himself, but the other students in the hall who by now had realized that Potter was not a boy to get on the bad side of, remained silent in anticipation of how Harry would react.  And although it was hard to tell through the thick curtain of stray hairs, Harry began to get an angry scowl on his face at the boldness of these men.

"Well Harry," Fudge said as he overcame his laughter, "The Daily Prophet is a newspaper, surely you must have known that.  But never mind, that's not important right now.  My companions here are from the daily prophet and various other newspapers and magazines."

An irritated Harry was by now fuming on the inside.  Wanting to make these people squirm in the most harmless way possible, he nodded to the people in recognition and said "well dis 'ears my companion" with a nod to Mag who began to snarl at them.

Hermione began to grin in spite of herself as the pompous minister and his companions began to back away in apprehension from the savage looking dog.

An uneasy Fudge then spoke up in a much less cocky voice, "Um, Mr. Potter, I do not believe it would be safe for you to keep such a… wild animal hear amongst the students, surely Dumbledore does not allow it."

Dumbledore, who had walked over to stand beside Harry then said, "Oh I assure you Cornelius, Mag is an extremely obedient dog and is a delightful contribute to the castle."  He then reached down and ran his hand down the dogs back and Mag immediately became calm.  This had shocked Harry, for up until now, he was the only one who was ever able to control the beast.  He looked up to Dumbledore disbelievingly.  The headmaster turned to look at him and gave him a small wink.

Fudge, who seemed relieved at the dogs sudden calming, spoke once again, "Well Harry, we do have many questions for you, first of all, where have you been all these years?"

Harry, who was not about to tell his life story to this stranger, much less the entire school, replied shortly, "London."

Fudge, not being satisfied by his answer, asked, "Well where in London where you?"

Harry still refused to explain anything about his life to the man, shook his hair out of his face and replied, "Here an' der."

"Well where exactly is 'here and there boy… BLOODY HELL, where did you get all those scars!" Fudge exclaimed having first noticed Harry's numerous battle scars.

Harry then realized that uncovering his face was not a good idea but replied all the same, "Here an' der."

Fudge seemed to be truly aggravated by now and said in an impatient voice while taking a step towards Harry, "Look Potter, no more games.  Now either start answering our questions or…"

Fudge was cut off by an angry dog who began to snarl at him once again for advancing on Harry.

It was then that Dumbledore, seeing that things were about to go south, stepped in.  "Minister I am sorry but I must ask you to stop harassing my student.  Harry is entitled to a personal life just as every other one of my students.  His private business is of no concern to the public unless of course he chooses it to be, which he obviously does not.  So if you are would be so kind as to leave Harry and the rest of the children alone so they can return to there studies I would be greatly appreciative.  Good day to you minister.  Come Harry, I would like to have a few words with you on your way to Professor Lupin's."  With that he turned away from the fuming minister and strode out of the hall.  Harry gave Hermione a brief wave and a smile before hurrying to catch up with the headmaster.

It was not until they had turned out of the crowded hall and into a nearly disserted one that the Headmaster finally did speak.  "I'm terribly sorry about that Harry, some times our dear minister tends to be a little, ah what's the word, press-happy." 

Harry smiled at the mans vocabulary and replied, "I's no problem sir, jus' a bit annoyin'.  And to be honest, I don' really want da whole world knowin' my life story."

"I don't blame you my boy, never was a big fan of the press my self to be truthful" the old man replied.

Both were silent for a brief moment before Harry thought of something else to ask.  "Um, sir, las' night I was talkin' ta 'Mione an she tol' me dat everyone went home fer da summer an' dat I wouldn' be able ta stay here fer da summer.  An' I was jus' wonderin' were I could go, cuz, I guess you wouldn' wan' me ta go back ta da street's, Would ya?"

Dumbledore replied shacking his head, "No, of course not.  That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about Harry.  I just wanted to let you know that you can rest assured that I will find you a place to live, hopefully somewhere that suits you.  I can promise that you will have a roof over your head this summer and will not have anything to worry about other than the trivial matters of youth, as it should be."

Harry wasn't entirely sure he understood the man but he had got the gist of what he was saying and so he smiled his thanks at him.

"I also wanted to ask how you were fairing so far, having any troubles with class or more importantly, the other students."

"School is goin' grea', never though' I could learn dis much so fast.  The other students 're okay fer da mos' part, I jus' wish they'd stop starin' at me.  It's bloody annoyin'.  Pardon my language but I can' stand 'em."

Dumbledore sighed, "That is something that I am afraid can not be helped.  You are quite celebrity weather you like it or not.  All I can offer you is my assurance that after time they will become used to you, but until then, just try your best to ignore them."

Harry and Dumbledore continued to converse about nothing in particular for the rest of the journey.  "Well Harry" The old man said as they reached the defense classroom,"It was truly a pleasure speaking to you.  And do rest assured, You will not be left alone this summer, I will take care of every thing."

Harry thanked Dumbledore again and entered the class room to be greeted by a sight he never thought he would have seen again.  There in a chair by the fire sat one of Harry's oldest living friends.  As the man looked up at the boy a wide smile formed on his face.

With a smile of his own Harry said in an even, but positive voice, "Ello Fletch."

END OF CHAPTER 8

A/N- How was that?  Good?  Bad?  Let me know.  On another note I must once again apologies for my lateness.  I've been working sixty hours a week for a landscaping company the last few weeks so I'm usual either at work or to tired to write.  I could work less and write more I suppose but if there is one thing I love more than writing fanfiction, it's really fast muscle cars, which are very expensive.  I'll try to get the next chapter out quick.  Bye.


	9. Shocking Suspicions

Chapter 9

_Harry thanked Dumbledore again and entered the class room to be greeted by a sight he never thought he would have seen again. There in a chair by the fire sat one of Harry's oldest living friends. As the man looked up at the boy a wide smile formed on his face._

_With a smile of his own Harry said in an even, but positive voice, "Ello Fletch."_

__

Mundungus got up from his seat and said with a hint of pride, "Well well, look at you. All grown up."

"That tends ta happen over… What's I' been? T'ree years" Harry said as he walked over to shake the man's hand.

"Yeah, about that," Fletch answered.

After a moment of silence the man spoke again, "Ya look damn good kid."

"You too Fletch" Harry said in reply. "So wha'cha doin' aroun' here."

"Well can't a man check in on an ol' friend once and a while like I used to back in the day."

"Yeah, speakin' o' tha'. How come you never tol' me you was a wizard. All these years you had us all thinkin' you was a magician or sumthin'"

"Well you had me thinkin' you was just another street kid. How come you never tol' me you was Harry Potter."

"I never though' I' mattered, what's your story"

"Well ta be honest, I would 'ave loved ta tell ya, but I'm sure you know the laws of confidentiality and what not by now."

"And since when did you star' carrin' about da laws" Harry said good naturedly.

"Yeah, good point. But I didn't come hear to talk abou' me. I came hear ta see how you was doin'."

Harry smiled at the man's kindness. "No' to bad actually. I t'ink I could get used to it."

Mundungus smiled, "Good, good… If anyone disserves this place its you."

Harry smiled and shook his hair out of his face. Mundungus looked down at him for a moment and said, "I cant believe I didn' see it before. You could've been your ol' mans twin brother if you was abou' twen'y years older. Except fer your eyes. You got your mothers eyes. And the best of both personalities if ya ask me. All yer missin' is them black glasses James used ta wear."

Harry was looked up from the floor with a smile and said, "I use' ta t'ink I needed glasses when I was younger, bu' I can see fine now so I musta' grown outa it."

"That's weird", Mundungus shrugged.

The two continued to chat with each other and Remus for about ten minutes about everything that had happened over the last few days. When Remus told him with good humor about Harry pulling a knife on Dumbledore, the man lost control and broke down laughing. After he had regained control he simply said "that's my boy," and patted Harry on the back proudly.

Soon, to Harry's disappointment, Mundungus stood and said, "Well Raven, it was good seein' ya, but time is money, and righ' now I aint got much of either."

"Goo' bye Fletch, thanks fer coming ta see me" Harry said, not sounding nearly as disappointed as he really was.

After the man had left, Harry was silent.

Remus frowned at Harry's disappointment. But luckily, he had something else to cheer him up.

"You alright Harry" He asked.

Harry looked up and smiled kindly at him. "Yeah, 'm alrigh'"

"Good, get your coat."

Harry looked a little confused and asked "What for?"

Remus chuckled a little and said "Well it just occurred to me yesterday that your father would be spinning in his grave If he knew that his only son was thirteen and still hadn't ridden a broom."

Harry returned to the common room that night feeling quite good to put it lightly. Truth be told, he had just had the time of his life. He had never felt more free, soaring in the sky like an eagle. Remus said that he was a natural flyer, just like his father. The two had spent the last two hours or so playing catch hundreds of feet in the air with a tennis ball in the twilight.

Harry was still so excited about the flight that he didn't even realize how tired he was until he entered the common room. It had been quite an eventful day. In the past four hours he had mouthed off to the Minister, caught up with and old friend, learned to fly, and he even thought he saw Jack for a moment while he was flying, but he disappeared to quickly to tell for sure.

Not seeing any of his friends in the common room, Harry decided to turn in early. Walking up to his room he was thankful that it was empty. After lying down on his bed he fell into an immediate deep sleep.

Harry was dreaming. There was no doubt in his mind about that. But there is a big difference between a dream and a nightmare, and this was defiantly a dream. In fact this was a beautiful dream. It was the family again, his family.

Lily sat against James' chest holding the little Harry in her harms. The room was well lit which caused her hair to sparkle like a golden chandelier. But something about the picture was different this time.

Across from the family was a man sitting in a chair. He was tall and dark but his brown eyes showed intense life like that of James' eyes.

Next to the man was another man, Remus. He looked almost the same as he did now except his hair had no grey and his eyes held much more life than they do now.

There was one other person in the room who seemed to be set apart from the others. He was short, fat and definitely did not look like a man who possessed any confidence but that was not what made him seem so different. Everyone else in the room seemed to radiate a positive vibe. Every thing about the group seemed to say that they were all proud of what was happening and loved all that they had. But not this man. Harry somehow sensed a gloomy feeling from him. Like the feeling you get when you place your trust in someone you don't really trust. It wasn't evil, more like a potential of evil deep within that was slowly poisoning his mind and intentions.

Harry's focus turned away from the small man as he heard laughing from the group. Lily had just handed baby Harry to the tall dark man who was now tickling the child mercilessly. Harry looked at the man before him. He was so familiar, but he could not put his finger on who he was. The memory of the man seemed to be so close and yet it was impossible to grab onto.

Harry heard a faint click somewhere in the distance. It was not in the dream though, it was in reality. Harry forced his thoughts away from the group causing them to disappear. Forcing his heavy eyelids open he saw the moon shining through the small opening in his hangings. He was sure he heard the door opening. He could hear the snoring of his room mates but other than that there was silence. Looked down at his feet he saw Mag's eyes open and her ears perked. That was enough to make him suspicious. Slowly Harry slid out of his bed, not making a sound. He walked over to the other side of his bed and saw a large black shape over by the door. The shape walked forward into the moon light and reviled who he was. Jack.

Harry immediately became confused. How did Jack, a dog, open a door? Or even get into the tower for that matter. And the main question on his mind was why Jack would want to come here in the first place.

Jack made his way over to the first bed in the room and sniffed. Not satisfied he moved over to the next bed. Ron's bed. After sniffing it once he stood up strait and seemed to get excited. Then he did something that turned Harry's confusion to shock. He transfigured into a man.

Harry had seen a lot of things in his life but this was starting to get really weird. He had read about people who were animagus, but how could his companion of nearly six months be one? And why was he so interested in Ron's bed. Harry watched as the tall dark man slowly slid the curtains away from Ron's bed. What was he doing?

Harry watched as a grin formed on the man's face. He reached into his filthy rags and drew something shiny, a knife! Harry silently darted out of the shadows. If the man had acted right away Harry would not have made it. But when Harry was halfway there the man still hadn't acted on Ron. Harry took a few more steps before the man's head shot up and saw him charging at him. Harry drew his stiletto ready to plunge it into the man's chest. But the man suddenly did not seem hostile.

He backed up against the wall and held his hands up in front of him, palms out. The man was obviously not going to try to hurt him, so instead of stabbing him in the heart Harry shoved his shoulder into his chest and pinned him against the wall.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ron's voice rang out, splitting the silence as saw the two long haired people struggling against the wall.

The dark man was thin but he still outweighed Harry by fifty pounds of so. So before the man could get his balance back, Harry swung his fist into the man's face. He almost fell over but Harry held him to the wall as hard as he could and pressed his knife into the man's jugular. Not hard enough to cut, but just hard enough to let the man know that if he moved he would be dead.

Harry heard commotion all around him as his roommates finally woke. His mind was in overdrive trying to figure out the situation. Was this Black? If so why did he not want to hurt him? He had plenty of chances to kill him on the streets. And now he didn't even seem to be trying to defend himself.

"_Who are you!!?" _Harry hissed forcefully, not wanting the others to hear him. In the midst of such confusion, Harry didn't trust anyone.

The man's eyes were panicking. He looked over at the door and then back down at Harry and started to whisper franticly, "_Harry, it's not the way you think. You have to…"_

_"_E-_Expelliarmus_" the shaken voice of Dean yelled from behind Harry. But unfortunately for Harry, Dean's aim was bad in the dark and his curse struck him square in the back.

Harry was thrown forward and his knife went sailing back at dean, who was forced to duck to keep from loosing an eye. Know Harry was on the floor with a nasty bump and the intruder was scrambling to his feet.

In between him and the door was Seamus who looked ready to faint. The intruder ran past the boy who tried to utter a curse but was to scared to do it right, and vanished into the hall. None of them were about to go after them except maybe Harry. But unfortunately he was having trouble standing at the moment due to the waves of blackness he was trying to shake off to avoided unconsciousness.

As soon as Harry regained his bearings he turned to Dean. "What da fuck was that all abou'!"

"It's not my fault ass hole, it was dark! I'd like to see you do better!" Dean shouted as people started to gather around the dorm, woken by the commotion.

Harry flicked his wand at lamps which immediately flared to life and said, "I did do better. If you hadn' panicked you would 'ave noticed that. I'm da only reason he didn' ge' da chance ta carve up Weasley."

As Harry said this, a question seemed to float into his mind. 'Did he really want to hurt Ron?' The man's actions and the man's reputation didn't match up. Harry had met plenty of cold blooded Murderers, and black wasn't one of them. Maybe he was at one time but he wasn't now. With the whole world insisting he was murderous and Harry knowing that he wasn't. Young Raven was starting to feel vulnerable. He wasn't naïve and he new that things like this weren't always as they seemed. But one thing was for sure. After what had just happened, Harry wasn't trusting anyone anymore. He had a gut feeling that there was more to the situation than any of them knew. He would have to be on his guard from now on.

Harry was drawn out of his thoughts by Hermione who had just arrived at the scene. "Harry! What happened… Oh god you're bleeding like crazy."

She grabbed a towel off the floor, ran to him and pressed it into his head to try and stop the bleeding. Harry opened his mouth to answer her question but before he could say anything he was cut off by the stern voice of Professor McGonagall. "What is going on here? All of you get back to… OH! Harry what happened to your head."

Harry was still too aggravated and dizzy to go into any detail so he told her bluntly, "Black came in hear and Dean cursed ME into the wall."

McGonagall looked shocked. "BLACK! In here! Mr. Potter, are you sure you weren't dreaming. You, Longbottom, did you see what happened?"

Neville looked at all the people in the door nervously and said, "I-I heard Ron scream and then I l-looked up and saw Harry punch Black in the face. Then Dean sent a disarming c-curse into Harry's back and he flew into the wall, and Black ran away."

"_Impossible" _She muttered before turning back to Harry. "Potter…" She started before once again noticing his gushing head wound, "Oh, Miss Granger take Harry to the Hospital wing."

Harry got up immediately, not wanting to have to answer more questions. Hermione stood up with him and tried to hold the towel to his head but he took it from her and held it on his own. Harry all but ran out of the room and into the hall.

"Harry! What's wrong with you! You need to take it easy," Hermione said worriedly.

"'m fine Mione'" Harry insisted. But immediately after he said this, as they were descending the stairs, He missed a step and fell down face first. Luckily, Hermione was quick and she caught him before he hit the ground.

"Harry! Slow down before you kill yourself. You probably have a concussion."

Harry slowed down to the pace Hermione was setting and they continued to walk together out into the castle.

"Why did you run out of there like that Harry? What happened?" Hermione asked.

Harry paused a moment before answering, "I woke up and saw him over by Ron's bed, with a knife. So I ran over and punched him into the wall and pinned him. I had him till Dean cursed me."

It wasn't that Harry didn't trust Hermione with the full story. Hell, for some reason she was the only one he did feel he could trust. But for now he decided that he would keep his suspicions to himself. 'No sense getting her involved in my problems' he thought reasonably.

"Well thank god your okay! I mean honestly Harry! You punched SIRIUS BLACK! What were you thinking!?!" Hermione yelled at him, but finished softly, "he could have killed you". She had been scared to death when she came into the dorm full of people yelling about Back and saw Harry on the ground openly bleeding. She had thought for a moment that Harry was dying and had never been more relieved when he looked up at her with eyes that were still full of life.

By the time they got to the Hospital wing both Harry and Hermione's hands were covered in blood, but they had managed to stop most of the bleeding.

As soon as they walked threw the door Madam Pomfrey immediately rushed over and set to work on Harry's wounds. When she was finished she insisted that Hermione leave and forced Harry to spend the night in the hospital wing.

After a few minutes, weather it was from exhaustion or blood loss, Harry fell into a deep sleep, despite everything that was on his mind.

The next day Harry woke to see twinkling blue eyes behind half moon spectacles. "Good mourning Mr. Potter. I hope you slept well."

Harry sat up in bed as everything that had happened yesterday came back to him. "Goo' mournin' Sir" Harry said to the old wizard.

"Harry, I need you to tell me exactly what happened last night. Don't leave anything out. It could be very important to catching him in the future."

Harry new this would come sooner or later and he already new what he had to tell him.

"I woke up las' nigh' an' heard something movin' so I looked up an' saw Black, jus' standin' over by Ron's bed. I didn' know what he was goin' ta do until I saw him pull out his knife. So den I ran over an' punched 'im into da wall. But then Dean cursed me in the back an' I hit my head and black got away."

As Harry finished, Dumbledore looked into his eyes in a way that made Harry's heart skip a beat. "Thank you Harry," The old Wizard said with a little less twinkle than usual, "If you remember anything else you want to tell me, come see me immediately please." With that he walked out of the room, leaving a confused, shocked, and even a little guilty Harry behind. "Damn" Harry mumbled, "How da fuck did he know I was lying."

END OF CHAPTER NINE

(A/N) Hi everyone, thanks for reading. I just want to say once again that I am sorry for my lateness. But the good news is that I have no more writer's block. Now that I'm back in school I have plenty of time to write fanfiction. Nothing gets my imagination going like a nice and boring trig class. Reviews would be helpful. Bye.


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